Import a preexisting Azure Disk volume

If you already have an Azure Disk volume to use with GKE on Azure, you can create a PersistentVolume (PV) object and reserve it for a specific PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC).

This page explains how to create a PV by using an existing volume populated with data, and how to use the PV in a Pod.

Before you begin

• Connect to your cluster

Create a PersistentVolume for a pre-existing volume

You can import an existing volume by specifying a new PV.

1. Copy the following YAML into a file named existing-volume.yaml .:

     apiVersion 
    : 
     
    v1 
    kind 
    : 
     
    PersistentVolume 
    metadata 
    : 
     
    name 
    : 
     
     VOLUME_NAME 
    
     
    annotations 
    : 
     
    pv.kubernetes.io/provisioned-by 
    : 
     
    disk.csi.azure.com 
    spec 
    : 
     
    capacity 
    : 
     
    storage 
    : 
     
     VOLUME_CAPACITY 
    
     
    accessModes 
    : 
     
    - 
     
    ReadWriteOnce 
     
    persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy 
    : 
     
    Retain 
     
    storageClassName 
    : 
     
     STORAGE_CLASS_NAME 
    
     
    claimRef 
    : 
     
    name 
    : 
     
    my-pvc 
     
    namespace 
    : 
     
    default 
     
    csi 
    : 
     
    driver 
    : 
     
    disk.csi.azure.com 
     
    volumeHandle 
    : 
     
    /subscriptions/ SUBSCRIPTION_ID 
   /resourcegroups/ RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME 
   /providers/microsoft.compute/disks/ DISK_NAME 
    
     
    fsType 
    : 
     
     FILE_SYSTEM_TYPE 
    
    
   

   Replace the following:

   • VOLUME_NAME : a name for the volume
   • VOLUME_CAPACITY : size of the volume. For example, 30Gi . For more information on specifying volume capacity in Kubernetes, see the Meaning of memory .

   • STORAGE_CLASS_NAME : the name of the StorageClass that provisions the volume. For example, you can use the default standard-rwo .

   • SUBSCRIPTION_ID : the Azure subscription ID that contains the volume.

   • RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME : the Azure resource group that contains the volume.

   • DISK_NAME : the Azure Disk name of the volume.

   • FS_TYPE : the file system type of the volume. For example, ext4 .

2. Apply the YAML to your cluster

    kubectl  
   apply  
   -f  
   existing-volume.yaml 
   

3. Confirm the creation of your PV

    kubectl  
   describe  
   pv  
    VOLUME_NAME 
    
   

   The output of this command contains the status of the PV.

Use the volume with a PersistentVolumeClaim and Pod

After you have imported your volume, you can create a PVC and a Pod that mounts the PVC.

1. The following YAML creates a PVC and attaches it to a Pod running the Nginx web server. Copy it into a file named nginx.yaml :

     apiVersion 
    : 
     
    v1 
    kind 
    : 
     
    PersistentVolumeClaim 
    metadata 
    : 
     
    name 
    : 
     
    my-pvc 
    spec 
    : 
     
    storageClassName 
    : 
     
     STORAGE_CLASS_NAME 
    
     
    volumeName 
    : 
     
     VOLUME_NAME 
    
     
    accessModes 
    : 
     
    - 
     
     ACCESS_MODE 
    
     
    resources 
    : 
     
    requests 
    : 
     
    storage 
    : 
     
     VOLUME_CAPACITY 
    
    --- 
    apiVersion 
    : 
     
    v1 
    kind 
    : 
     
    Pod 
    metadata 
    : 
     
    name 
    : 
     
    web-server 
    spec 
    : 
     
    containers 
    : 
     
    - 
     
    name 
    : 
     
    web-server 
     
    image 
    : 
     
    nginx 
     
    volumeMounts 
    : 
     
    - 
     
    mountPath 
    : 
     
    /var/lib/www/html 
     
    name 
    : 
     
    data 
     
    volumes 
    : 
     
    - 
     
    name 
    : 
     
    data 
     
    persistentVolumeClaim 
    : 
     
    claimName 
    : 
     
    my-pvc 
    
   

   Replace the following:

   • STORAGE_CLASS : the name of the StorageClass from the PersistentVolume you created previously. For example, standard-rwo .
   • ACCESS_MODE : the access mode of the volume. For Azure Disk, use ReadWriteOnce . For Azure File, use ReadWriteMany .
   • VOLUME_CAPACITY : size of the volume. For example, 30Gi .

2. Apply the YAML to your cluster

    kubectl  
   apply  
   -f  
   nginx.yaml 
   

3. Check the status of your Nginx instance with kubectl describe . The output should have a STATUS of Running .

    kubectl  
   describe  
   pod  
   web-server 
   

What's next

• Use additional storage drivers with GKE on Azure.
• Read the documentation for the Azure Disk CSI driver .