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Adding NFS Server as Storage Class on Kubernetes

This guide walks you through the process of adding a Network File System (NFS) server as a Storage Class in Kubernetes, enabling you to use NFS for persistent storage.

Prerequisites

  • An NFS server setup and configured.
  • A Kubernetes cluster with administrative access.

Step 1: Installing and Configuring the NFS Server

Ensure your NFS server is correctly set up and that the directory you wish to share is configured in the /etc/exports file on your NFS server.

Step 2: Creating a Persistent Volume on Kubernetes

Create a Persistent Volume (PV) that references your NFS server and the path to the shared directory. Here is an example YAML configuration:

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apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: pv-nfs-kubedata-nginx-1  # < Name of the persistent volume
  namespace: default    
spec:
  storageClassName: ""
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi # < Maximum storage size you want to reserve
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
  mountOptions:
    - hard
    - nfsvers=4.1
  nfs:
    server: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  # < The ip adress of your NAS (NFS Server)
    path: "/volume1/kubedata/nginx-1"  # < The NFS volumename 
    readOnly: false
Replace nfs-server.your-domain.com with the IP or domain name of your NFS server and /var/nfs/general with the path to your shared directory. Step 3: Creating a Storage Class for NFS

Since NFS does not support dynamic provisioning directly through Kubernetes without an external provisioner, you might need to use an external provisioner like NFS Subdir External Provisioner for dynamic storage provisioning. Step 4: Creating a Persistent Volume Claim

Applications will use a Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) to request storage. Below is an example PVC configuration:

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apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: nfs-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
  volumeName: nfs-pv
Step 5: Using the PVC in Kubernetes Pods

You can now reference the PVC in your pod definitions to mount the NFS volume. Here's how:

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apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: example-pod
spec:
  containers:
  - name: example-container
    image: nginx
    volumeMounts:
    - mountPath: "/usr/share/nginx/html"
      name: nfs-volume
  volumes:
  - name: nfs-volume
    persistentVolumeClaim:
      claimName: nfs-pvc