Accessing file shares from Google Kubernetes Engine clusters

This page shows you how to access a Filestore file share from a GKE cluster by creating a Persistent Volume (PV) and Persistent Volume Claim (PVC).

The cluster must be in the same Google Cloud project and VPC network as the Filestore instance, unless the Filestore instance is on a shared VPC network. Currently, Filestore instances can only be created on a shared VPC network from the host project. For details, see Known issues.

Create a Persistent Volume

  1. Install the kubectl command-line tool:

    gcloud components install kubectl &&
gcloud container clusters get-credentials cluster-name

    where cluster-name is the name of the cluster.

  2. Create a Kubernetes Persistent Volume specification. This is a .yaml file that provides information about how to access the Filestore file share. The specification looks similar to the following example:

    apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: fileserver
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: storage
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  nfs:
    path: /file-share
    server: ip-address

    where:

    • storage is the size of the file share on the Filestore instance. You must specify the storage value in one of the supported units described in Resource quantities, such as 2T.

    • file-share is the name of the file share on the Filestore instance. You can get the file share name of an instance from any of following sources:

      • The Filestore instances page in the Cloud Console.

      Go to the Filestore instances page

      • The FILE_SHARE_NAME field in the results from the instances list command.
      • The name field in the fileShares section of the results from the instances describe command.

    • ip-address is the IP address for the Filestore instance. You can get an instance's IP address from any of following sources:

    For more information on the other settings, see Persistent Volumes.

  3. Deploy the Persistent Volume specification:

    kubectl create -f /path/to/persistent-volume-file-name.yaml

    where persistent-volume-file-name is the name of the Kubernetes Persistent Volume specification file that you created in the previous step.

Create a Persistent Volume Claim

  1. Create a Kubernetes Persistent Volume Claim specification. This is a .yaml file that allows a Kubernetes pod to access the storage resources of a Persistent Volume. The specification looks similar to the following example:

    apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: fileserver-claim
spec:
  # Specify "" as the storageClassName so it matches the PersistentVolume's StorageClass.
  # A nil storageClassName value uses the default StorageClass. For details, see
  # https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/#class-1
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  storageClassName: ""
  volumeName: fileserver
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: storage

    where storage is the size of the Persistent Volume Claim you want to make available to Kubernetes objects.

    You must specify the storage value in one of the supported units described in Resource quantities. The value you specify must be equal to or less than the storage you specified for the Persistent Volume.

    For more information on the other settings, see Persistent Volume Claims.

  2. Deploy the Persistent Volume Claim specification:

    kubectl create -f /path/to/persistent-volume-claim-file-name.yaml

    where persistent-volume-file-name is the name of the Kubernetes Persistent Volume specification file that you created in the previous step.

Consume the Persistent Volume Claim

  1. Create a specification for a Kubernetes object that consumes a Persistent Volume Claim, such as a Kubernetes pod. This specification is a .yaml file that describes the object, including information about any storage resources available to it. A pod specification looks similar to the following example:

    apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: my-pod
spec:
  containers:
  - name: container-name
    image: image-name
    volumeMounts:
    - mountPath: mount-path
      name: mypvc
  volumes:
  - name: mypvc
    persistentVolumeClaim:
      claimName: claim-name
      readOnly: false

    where:

    • container-name is the name of a container in the Pod.
    • image-name is the tag for the Docker image that the container runs.
    • mount-path is the path to mount the Persistent Volume Claim to, for example /mnt/fileserver.
    • claim-name is the name of a deployed Persistent Value Claim. In this example, this is fileserver-claim.

    For more information on the other settings, see Pods.

  2. Deploy the pod specification:

    kubectl create -f /path/to/pod-file-name.yaml

    where pod-file-name is the name of the pod specification that you created in the previous step.

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