Storage¶

Adding storage to a Kubernetes cluster is easy with the Catalyst Cloud Kubernetes service.

Catalyst Cloud’s storage solution for Kubernetes is based on our Block Storage, service. It conforms to the Container Storage Interface (CSI), an open standard for integrating storage and file systems with containerised workloads.

Fast, Flexible and Secure¶

Storage volumes can be allocated to Kubernetes workloads to support a variety of needs including database storage, secure backups and website content. They are persistent storage which will remain if the workload goes away and will reattach when needed, such as when a Pod is scaled down to zero instances and back up again. They can even be migrated to a new cluster in the event that a cluster is rebuilt. They can be resized as storage requirements increase. Finally, Block Storage volumes are always encrypted meaning that data stays secure at rest.

Integration with Catalyst Cloud’s Block Storage service means that users can select from a range of volume tiers including standard HDD and high performance NVMe-backed storage.

Persistent Volumes¶

Storage volumes can be added to a cluster in a couple of ways.

The cluster administrator can create pre-configured static PersistentVolumes (PV) that define a particular size and type of volume and these in turn can be utilised by end users, such as application developers, via a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC).

Alternatively, a developer can define a PVC which uses one of the pre-defined StorageClass objects in Catalyst Cloud.

Storage classes¶

Catalyst Cloud provides pre-defined Storage Classes for the block storage tiers in each region. The storage classes available to Kubernetes clusters are named according to the underlying block storage tiers.

The storage class names and their availability by region are as follows:

Storage class	nz-por-1	nz-hlz-1
b1.sr-r3-nvme-1000	available	available
b1.sr-r3-nvme-2500	available	available
b1.sr-r3-nvme-5000	available	available
b1.standard	available	available

Adding Storage to a Cluster¶

Adding storage to a Catalyst Cloud Kubernetes cluster is easy. As illustrated in the figure below, a user first creates a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) using a storage class from the table above. The control plane then provisions a volume from Catalyst Cloud Block Storage which can be used by a Pod.

../_images/block-storage.drawio.svg — Attaching Catalyst Cloud Block Storage volume to a `Pod` using a `PersistentVolumeClaim`.¶

This can be demonstrated with an example. We first need to specify a name for the PVC and a size for the volume:

storage class : b1.sr-r3-nvme-1000
volume name : test-persistentvolumeclaim
volume size : 1 GiB

# pvc1.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: test-persistentvolumeclaim
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  storageClassName: b1.sr-r3-nvme-1000
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi

Now create the claim for the volume in Kubernetes.

$ kubectl create -f pvc1.yaml
persistentvolumeclaim/test-persistentvolumeclaim created

We should soon be able to see this PVC transition to Bound status, as a PersistentVolume is created and bound, and a volume is created in Catalyst Cloud Block Storage.

$ kubectl get pvc
NAME                         STATUS   VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS         AGE
test-persistentvolumeclaim   Bound    pvc-bca8b8ef-01b2-408e-aba6-bf9bef249e84   1Gi        RWO            b1.sr-r3-nvme-1000   17s

$ kubectl get pv
NAME                                       CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS   CLAIM                                STORAGECLASS         REASON   AGE
pvc-bca8b8ef-01b2-408e-aba6-bf9bef249e84   1Gi        RWO            Retain           Bound    default/test-persistentvolumeclaim   b1.sr-r3-nvme-1000            17s

To access this from within a pod we need to add a volumes entry specifying the PersistentVolumeClaim and give it a name. We then add a volumeMounts entry to the container that links to the PVC by its name. Finally a mountPath entry that defines the target path for the volume to be mounted in the container.

# pvc1-pod.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: pod-pv-test
spec:
  containers:
    - name: test-storage-container
      image: nginx:latest
      ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
          name: "http-server"
      volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: "/data"
          name: test-persistentvolume
  volumes:
    - name: test-persistentvolume
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: test-persistentvolumeclaim

Create the new pod.

$ kubectl create -f pvc1-pod.yaml
pod/pod-pv-test created

Once the pod is available, exec into it with a bash shell to confirm that the new volume is mounted on /data.

$ kubectl exec -it pod-pv-test -- /bin/bash

root@pod-pv-test:/# mount | grep data
/dev/vdd on /data type ext4 (rw,relatime,seclabel)

If we describe the pod we can see under the Mounts: section that it has a volume mounted from the storage class block-storage-class and the Volumes: section shows the related persistent volume claim for this storage.

$ kubectl describe pod pod-pv-test
Name:             pod-pv-test
Namespace:        default
Priority:         0
Service Account:  default
Node:             cluster1-afjuly77v4gr-node-0/10.0.0.14
Start Time:       Wed, 31 Jan 2024 22:49:45 +0000
Labels:           <none>
Annotations:      cni.projectcalico.org/containerID: d0e0273a9c017d9beb9476d886bd028c953ef8e39e730a7f407eb411f39d7dca
                  cni.projectcalico.org/podIP: 10.100.130.208/32
                  cni.projectcalico.org/podIPs: 10.100.130.208/32
Status:           Running
IP:               10.100.130.208
IPs:
  IP:  10.100.130.208
Containers:
  test-storage-container:
    Container ID:   containerd://5fcb09543ec5202f1a2ee56b2086aaabe8291fd07234e75a1bf10f40d198a106
    Image:          nginx:latest
    Image ID:       docker.io/library/nginx@sha256:4c0fdaa8b6341bfdeca5f18f7837462c80cff90527ee35ef185571e1c327beac
    Port:           8080/TCP
    Host Port:      0/TCP
    State:          Running
      Started:      Wed, 31 Jan 2024 22:50:08 +0000
    Ready:          True
    Restart Count:  0
    Environment:    <none>
    Mounts:
      /data from test-persistentvolume (rw)
      /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from kube-api-access-p2npp (ro)
Conditions:
  Type              Status
  Initialized       True
  Ready             True
  ContainersReady   True
  PodScheduled      True
Volumes:
  test-persistentvolume:
    Type:       PersistentVolumeClaim (a reference to a PersistentVolumeClaim in the same namespace)
    ClaimName:  test-persistentvolumeclaim
    ReadOnly:   false
  kube-api-access-p2npp:
    Type:                    Projected (a volume that contains injected data from multiple sources)
    TokenExpirationSeconds:  3607
    ConfigMapName:           kube-root-ca.crt
    ConfigMapOptional:       <nil>
    DownwardAPI:             true
QoS Class:                   BestEffort
Node-Selectors:              <none>
Tolerations:                 node.kubernetes.io/not-ready:NoExecute op=Exists for 300s
                             node.kubernetes.io/unreachable:NoExecute op=Exists for 300s
Events:
  Type    Reason                  Age   From                     Message
  ----    ------                  ----  ----                     -------
  Normal  Scheduled               2m    default-scheduler        Successfully assigned default/pod-pv-test to cluster1-afjuly77v4gr-node-0
  Normal  SuccessfulAttachVolume  111s  attachdetach-controller  AttachVolume.Attach succeeded for volume "pvc-bca8b8ef-01b2-408e-aba6-bf9bef249e84"
  Normal  Pulling                 108s  kubelet                  Pulling image "nginx:latest"
  Normal  Pulled                  97s   kubelet                  Successfully pulled image "nginx:latest" in 10.696765403s (10.69679197s including waiting)
  Normal  Created                 97s   kubelet                  Created container test-storage-container
  Normal  Started                 97s   kubelet                  Started container test-storage-container

Persistent Volume Retention¶

PersistentVolumeClaim and their associated PersistentVolume resources within a Kubernetes cluster are backed by block storage volumes. The retention of these block storage volumes depends on the persistent volume’s reclaim policy inherited from its StorageClass, by default.

The csi_cinder_reclaim_policy cluster label (see Cluster Labels) can be used to apply a reclaim policy to all default StorageClass resources of a provisioned cluster (the default is Retain, if unspecified). Persistent volumes created with any of the default StorageClass options follow this reclaim policy, unless overridden, with one notable exception:

Warning

If a cluster with persistent volumes is deleted, all underlying volumes are retained and will not be deleted automatically, regardless of their configured retention policy or the csi_cinder_reclaim_policy label set for the cluster.

Persistent volumes that are intentionally deleted while a cluster is active follow their configured reclaim policy. The key idea to note is that reclaim policies only apply to persistent volume operations and cluster deletion does not fall under this category. It is recommended to manage any persistent volumes via kubectl while a cluster is still active if you require the reclaim policy to apply.

If the csi_cinder_reclaim_policy label is unspecified, the default reclaim policy is Retain and is set on all StorageClass resources in a cluster at the time of creation. The Retain policy prevents accidental removal, and allows re-attachment of block storage volumes to another Kubernetes cluster. For some workloads, it may be preferable to use the Delete reclaim policy which will remove both the automatically created PersistentVolume and the underlying block storage volume when the PersistentVolumeClaim is deleted.

Refer to the Kubernetes documentation on Persistent Volume Reclaiming for more details.

Note

Please refer to our tutorials for more detailed examples using persistent storage in Kubernetes.

Accessing PersistentVolume data without a cluster¶

If it is necessary to access the data on the PersistentVolume device without creating a new cluster, the volume in question will need to be attached to an existing Catalyst Cloud instance and then mounted as a new volume within the filesystem.

For further information on mounting an existing volume, see Creating and using volumes.