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PVs, PVCs, and Storage Classes

Updated on 2025-07-09 GMT+08:00

hostPath volumes are used for persistent storage. Such volumes are node-specific, and data written into them is read only.

To ensure data persistence after pod rescheduling, network storage must be used. Cloud service providers typically offer three types of network storage: block storage, file storage, and object storage. Kubernetes abstracts PVs and PVCs to decouple storage provisioning from underlying infrastructure. This abstraction means you do not have to worry about implementation details. Instead, you can request storage resources like you would for CPUs and memory, by just declaring the requirement.

  • A PV represents a persistent storage volume. It typically defines a directory on the host node, such as a network file system (NFS) mount directory.
  • A PVC specifies the attributes of the persistent storage that a pod requires, such as storage volume size and read/write permissions.

To allow a pod to use a PV, the Kubernetes cluster administrator needs to configure a network storage class and provides PV descriptors to Kubernetes. You only need to create a PVC and bind it with the volumes in the pod so that you can store data. The following figure shows the interaction between a PV and PVC.

Figure 1 Interaction between a PV and PVC

CSI

Kubernetes offers Container Storage Interface (CSI), which can be used to develop custom CSI add-ons to support specific storage requirements while maintaining decoupling from underlying storage. For example, components developed by CCE such as everest-csi-controller and everest-csi-driver in the kube-system namespace, serve as storage controllers and drivers in Namespaces. With everest-csi-controller and everest-csi-driver, you can use cloud storage services such as EVS, SFS, and OBS.

$ kubectl get po --namespace=kube-system
NAME                                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
everest-csi-controller-6d796fb9c5-v22df   2/2     Running   0          9m11s
everest-csi-driver-snzrr                  1/1     Running   0          12m
everest-csi-driver-ttj28                  1/1     Running   0          12m
everest-csi-driver-wtrk6                  1/1     Running   0          12m

PVs

The following shows how to define a PV. In this example, a file system is created in SFS, with the file system ID 68e4a4fd-d759-444b-8265-20dc66c8c502 and the mount point sfs-nas01.cn-north-4b.myhuaweicloud.com:/share-96314776. To use this file system in CCE, create a PV.

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: pv-example
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany                      # Read/write mode
  capacity:
    storage: 10Gi                      # PV capacity
  csi:
    driver: nas.csi.everest.io         # Driver to be used
    fsType: nfs                        # Storage class
    volumeAttributes:
      everest.io/share-export-location: sfs-nas01.cn-north-4b.myhuaweicloud.com:/share-96314776   # Mount point
    volumeHandle: 68e4a4fd-d759-444b-8265-20dc66c8c502                                            # File system ID

Fields under csi in this example are specifically designed for CCE clusters.

Next, create the PV and view its details.

$ kubectl create -f pv.yaml
persistentvolume/pv-example created

$ kubectl get pv
NAME                 CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS      CLAIM    STORAGECLASS   REASON   AGE
pv-example           10Gi       RWX            Retain           Available                                    4s

RECLAIM POLICY defines how a PV is managed after its bound PVC is released. Retain means the PV remains in the system, even after the bound PVC is deleted. Available indicates that the PV is available.

PVCs

Each PVC can only have one PV bound. The following is an example:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: pvc-example
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 10Gi              # Storage capacity
  volumeName: pv-example         # PV name

Create the PVC and view its details.

$ kubectl create -f pvc.yaml
persistentvolumeclaim/pvc-example created

$ kubectl get pvc
NAME          STATUS   VOLUME       CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   AGE
pvc-example   Bound    pv-example   10Gi       RWX                           9s

The PVC is in the Bound state, and the value of VOLUME is pv-example, indicating that the PVC has a PV bound.

Then, check the PV status.

$ kubectl get pv
NAME          CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS   CLAIM                  STORAGECLASS   REASON   AGE
pv-example    10Gi       RWX            Retain           Bound    default/pvc-example                            50s

The status of the PV is also Bound. The value of CLAIM is default/pvc-example, indicating that the PV is bound to the pvc-example PVC in the default namespace.

PVs are cluster-level resources and do not belong to any namespace. PVCs, in contrast, are namespace-level resources. PVs can be bound to PVCs in any namespace. In this example, the namespace name default followed by the PVC name is displayed under CLAIM.

Figure 2 Relationship between PVs and PVCs

Storage Classes

PVs and PVCs hide the differences between different types of physical storage, but creating a PV can be complex, especially the configuration of the csi field. In addition, PVs and PVCs are generally managed by the cluster administrator. It is inconvenient for you to configure varying attributes for them.

To solve this problem, Kubernetes supports dynamic PV provisioning, which automates the creation of PVs. The cluster administrator can deploy a PV provisioner and define storage classes. In this way, you can select a desired storage class when creating a PVC. The PVC then transfers the storage class to the PV provisioner, which automatically creates a PV. In CCE, storage classes such as csi-disk, csi-nas, and csi-obs are supported. By including the storageClassName field in a PVC, CCE ensures that PVs are dynamically provisioned, with underlying storage resources created automatically.

You can run the command below to obtain the storage classes that CCE supports. You can use the CSI add-ons provided by CCE to customize storage classes, which function similarly as the default storage classes in CCE.

# kubectl get sc
NAME                PROVISIONER                     AGE
csi-disk            everest-csi-provisioner         17d          # Storage class for EVS disks
csi-disk-topology   everest-csi-provisioner         17d          # Storage class for EVS disks with delayed association
csi-nas             everest-csi-provisioner         17d          # Storage class for SFS file systems
csi-obs             everest-csi-provisioner         17d          # Storage class for OBS buckets
csi-sfsturbo        everest-csi-provisioner         17d          # Storage class for SFS Turbo file systems

Specify a storage class for creating a PVC.

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name:  pvc-sfs-auto-example
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 10Gi
  storageClassName: csi-nas        # StorageClass
NOTE:

PVCs cannot be directly created using the csi-sfsturbo storage class. To use SFS Turbo storage, create an SFS Turbo file system and then statically provision a PV and PVC. For details, see Using an Existing SFS Turbo File System Through a Static PV.

Create the PVC and view the PVC and PV details.

$ kubectl create -f pvc2.yaml
persistentvolumeclaim/pvc-sfs-auto-example created

$ kubectl get pvc
NAME                   STATUS   VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   AGE
pvc-sfs-auto-example   Bound    pvc-1f1c1812-f85f-41a6-a3b4-785d21063ff3   10Gi       RWX            csi-nas        29s

$ kubectl get pv
NAME                                       CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS   CLAIM                         STORAGECLASS   REASON   AGE
pvc-1f1c1812-f85f-41a6-a3b4-785d21063ff3   10Gi       RWO            Delete           Bound    default/pvc-sfs-auto-example  csi-nas                 20s

The command output shows that after a storage class is specified, a PVC and PV have been created and bound.

After a storage class is specified, PVs can be automatically created and maintained. You only need to specify StorageClassName when creating a PVC, which greatly reduces the workload. The types of StorageClassName vary by vendor. SFS is only used as an example.

Using a PVC in a Pod

With a PVC, you can easily use persistent storage in a pod. In the pod template, you simply reference the name of the PVC in the volumes field and mount it to the pod, as shown in the following example. You can also create a PVC for a StatefulSet. For details, see StatefulSets.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-deployment
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  replicas: 2
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers: 
      - image: nginx:alpine
        name: container-0 
        volumeMounts: 
        - mountPath: /tmp                                # Mount path
          name: pvc-sfs-example 
      restartPolicy: Always 
      volumes: 
      - name: pvc-sfs-example 
        persistentVolumeClaim: 
          claimName:  pvc-example                       # PVC name

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