5.3. Using volumes to persist container data
Files in a container are ephemeral. As such, when a container crashes or stops, the data is lost. You can use volumes to persist the data used by the containers in a pod. A volume is directory, accessible to the Containers in a pod, where data is stored for the life of the pod.
5.3.1. Understanding volumes
Volumes are mounted file systems available to pods and their containers which may be backed by a number of host-local or network attached storage endpoints. Containers are not persistent by default; on restart, their contents are cleared.
To ensure that the file system on the volume contains no errors and, if errors are present, to repair them when possible, OpenShift Container Platform invokes the fsck
utility prior to the mount
utility. This occurs when either adding a volume or updating an existing volume.
The simplest volume type is emptyDir
, which is a temporary directory on a single machine. Administrators may also allow you to request a persistent volume that is automatically attached to your pods.
emptyDir
volume storage may be restricted by a quota based on the pod’s FSGroup, if the FSGroup parameter is enabled by your cluster administrator.
5.3.2. Working with volumes using the OpenShift Container Platform CLI
You can use the CLI command oc set volume
to add and remove volumes and volume mounts for any object that has a pod template like replication controllers or deployment configs. You can also list volumes in pods or any object that has a pod template.
The oc set volume
command uses the following general syntax:
$ oc set volume <object_selection> <operation> <mandatory_parameters> <options>
- Object selection
-
Specify one of the following for the
object_selection
parameter in theoc set volume
command:
Syntax | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
|
Selects |
|
|
Selects |
|
|
Selects resources of type |
|
|
Selects all resources of type |
|
| File name, directory, or URL to file to use to edit the resource. |
|
- Operation
-
Specify
--add
or--remove
for theoperation
parameter in theoc set volume
command. - Mandatory parameters
- Any mandatory parameters are specific to the selected operation and are discussed in later sections.
- Options
- Any options are specific to the selected operation and are discussed in later sections.
5.3.3. Listing volumes and volume mounts in a pod
You can list volumes and volume mounts in pods or pod templates:
Procedure
To list volumes:
$ oc set volume <object_type>/<name> [options]
List volume supported options:
Option | Description | Default |
---|---|---|
| Name of the volume. | |
|
Select containers by name. It can also take wildcard |
|
For example:
To list all volumes for pod p1:
$ oc set volume pod/p1
To list volume v1 defined on all deployment configs:
$ oc set volume dc --all --name=v1
5.3.4. Adding volumes to a pod
You can add volumes and volume mounts to a pod.
Procedure
To add a volume, a volume mount, or both to pod templates:
$ oc set volume <object_type>/<name> --add [options]
Option | Description | Default |
---|---|---|
| Name of the volume. | Automatically generated, if not specified. |
|
Name of the volume source. Supported values: |
|
|
Select containers by name. It can also take wildcard |
|
| Mount path inside the selected containers. | |
|
Host path. Mandatory parameter for | |
|
Name of the secret. Mandatory parameter for | |
|
Name of the configmap. Mandatory parameter for | |
|
Name of the persistent volume claim. Mandatory parameter for | |
|
Details of volume source as a JSON string. Recommended if the desired volume source is not supported by | |
|
Display the modified objects instead of updating them on the server. Supported values: | |
| Output the modified objects with the given version. |
|
For example:
To add a new volume source emptyDir to the registry
DeploymentConfig
object:$ oc set volume dc/registry --add
To add volume v1 with secret secret1 for replication controller r1 and mount inside the containers at /data:
$ oc set volume rc/r1 --add --name=v1 --type=secret --secret-name='secret1' --mount-path=/data
To add existing persistent volume v1 with claim name pvc1 to deployment configuration dc.json on disk, mount the volume on container c1 at /data, and update the
DeploymentConfig
object on the server:$ oc set volume -f dc.json --add --name=v1 --type=persistentVolumeClaim \ --claim-name=pvc1 --mount-path=/data --containers=c1
To add a volume v1 based on Git repository https://github.com/namespace1/project1 with revision 5125c45f9f563 for all replication controllers:
$ oc set volume rc --all --add --name=v1 \ --source='{"gitRepo": { "repository": "https://github.com/namespace1/project1", "revision": "5125c45f9f563" }}'
5.3.5. Updating volumes and volume mounts in a pod
You can modify the volumes and volume mounts in a pod.
Procedure
Updating existing volumes using the --overwrite
option:
$ oc set volume <object_type>/<name> --add --overwrite [options]
For example:
To replace existing volume v1 for replication controller r1 with existing persistent volume claim pvc1:
$ oc set volume rc/r1 --add --overwrite --name=v1 --type=persistentVolumeClaim --claim-name=pvc1
To change the
DeploymentConfig
object d1 mount point to /opt for volume v1:$ oc set volume dc/d1 --add --overwrite --name=v1 --mount-path=/opt
5.3.6. Removing volumes and volume mounts from a pod
You can remove a volume or volume mount from a pod.
Procedure
To remove a volume from pod templates:
$ oc set volume <object_type>/<name> --remove [options]
Option | Description | Default |
---|---|---|
| Name of the volume. | |
|
Select containers by name. It can also take wildcard |
|
| Indicate that you want to remove multiple volumes at once. | |
|
Display the modified objects instead of updating them on the server. Supported values: | |
| Output the modified objects with the given version. |
|
For example:
To remove a volume v1 from the
DeploymentConfig
object d1:$ oc set volume dc/d1 --remove --name=v1
To unmount volume v1 from container c1 for the
DeploymentConfig
object d1 and remove the volume v1 if it is not referenced by any containers on d1:$ oc set volume dc/d1 --remove --name=v1 --containers=c1
To remove all volumes for replication controller r1:
$ oc set volume rc/r1 --remove --confirm
5.3.7. Configuring volumes for multiple uses in a pod
You can configure a volume to allows you to share one volume for multiple uses in a single pod using the volumeMounts.subPath
property to specify a subPath
value inside a volume instead of the volume’s root.
Procedure
View the list of files in the volume, run the
oc rsh
command:$ oc rsh <pod>
Example output
sh-4.2$ ls /path/to/volume/subpath/mount example_file1 example_file2 example_file3
Specify the
subPath
:Example
Pod
spec withsubPath
parameterapiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: my-site spec: containers: - name: mysql image: mysql volumeMounts: - mountPath: /var/lib/mysql name: site-data subPath: mysql 1 - name: php image: php volumeMounts: - mountPath: /var/www/html name: site-data subPath: html 2 volumes: - name: site-data persistentVolumeClaim: claimName: my-site-data