Skip to main content
Welcome to this lesson on Kubernetes storage. In this section you’ll learn the essential concepts needed to provide durable, persistent data to containers running in Kubernetes clusters. We cover the core primitives—PersistentVolumes (PV), PersistentVolumeClaims (PVC), access modes, and how to configure applications to use persistent storage—so you can confidently design stateful workloads. Key topics covered in this lesson:
  • Persistent Volumes (PV) and Persistent Volume Claims (PVC)
  • Access modes and reclaim policies
  • Configuring Pods and Deployments to use persistent storage
  • How Kubernetes storage primitives map to real storage backends (local, networked, and cloud)
A presentation slide titled "Storage" showing a numbered list of Kubernetes storage topics (Persistent Volumes, Persistent Volume Claims, configuring applications with persistent storage, access modes, and Kubernetes storage object). A presenter stands on the right speaking to the camera.
Kubernetes supports many storage options—local disks, networked file systems (NFS, SMB), cloud block stores (EBS, Persistent Disks), object stores, and many third-party solutions. The specific integrations depend on your environment and provider: some environments rely on in-tree drivers, while most modern integrations use the Container Storage Interface (CSI) to provide a consistent plugin model across platforms.
Kubernetes storage is built from a small set of primitives (PV, PVC, StorageClass, Access Modes). Once you understand how these objects relate, you can plug in any compatible backend—on-premises or cloud—using the provider’s CSI driver.
Storage options at a glance: Access modes determine how a volume can be mounted by Pods (for example: ReadWriteOnce, ReadOnlyMany, ReadWriteMany). StorageClass objects and CSI drivers control provisioning and lifecycle behavior for persistent volumes.
Local storage is tied to a node. Pods using local-only storage may not be rescheduled with their data if the node fails. For durable, highly available applications, prefer networked or cloud-backed volumes with proper replication and backup strategies.
Next steps
  • Learn the PV/PVC lifecycle and create a PVC that requests a volume from a StorageClass.
  • Practice mounting volumes into Pods and validating data persistence across Pod restarts.
  • Review the CSI driver documentation for your environment to understand supported features and limitations.
Links and references

Watch Video