In Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) version 1.24 or later, you can use the Kubernetes
volume expansion feature to change a persistent volume's capacity after
its creation.
If the volume you want to resize is managed by a CSI Driver:
Ensure the GKE cluster version is 1.16 or later.
If the cluster has Windows node pools, ensure the GKE cluster version is 1.18 or later.
If you are using the managedGKE Filestore CSI driver, the cluster version must be 1.21 or later.
Check your storage vendor's documentation to verify your CSI driver supports
volume expansion. The Compute Engine Persistent Disk CSI driver and the
Filestore CSI driver support volume expansion.
If the volume you want to resize is managed by an in-tree volume plugin:
Ensure the GKE cluster version is 1.11 or greater. While
GKE cluster versions 1.11-1.14 support expansion of volumes
managed by in-tree plugins, they require all Pods using the volume to be
terminated and recreated to complete volume expansion.
Check your storage vendor's documentation to verify your in-tree volume
plugin supports volume expansion (the Compute Engine Persistent Disk
in-tree plugin does).
If the capacity of a PersistentVolume is modified directly, this could lead the
container file system to be incorrect. To fix these issues, seetroubleshoot volume expansion changes.
Managing volume expansions in StatefulSets
If you need to increase the size of volumes used by Pods within aStatefulSetin Kubernetes, you should adjust thespec.resources.requests.storagefield
of the PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs) associated with the Pods. Attempting to
modify thevolumeClaimTemplatesfield directly in the StatefulSet
object will cause an error.
Additionally, if you increase the replica count of the StatefulSet,
it will still create PVCs of the original size. To permanently change the
size of the volumes provisioned for the Pods managed by the StatefulSet,
you must delete and recreate the StatefulSet object with the updated size
that's specified in thevolumeClaimTemplatesfield.
You can perform the following steps in order to keep the original Pods up and
running while adjusting the StatefulSet to provision future replicas with the
new volume size.
Save your edits and close the text editor. Wait for Kubernetes to update the
PersistentVolumeClaim with your changes.
Remove the StatefulSet object from the cluster while keeping the Pods
running as standalone Pods:
kubectldeletestsstatefulset-name--cascade=orphan
Edit the new volume storage size in the locally savedsts-backup.yamlfile, specifically the value ofspec.volumeClaimTemplates.spec.resources.requests.storage
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-09-04 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Using volume expansion\n\n[Autopilot](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/autopilot-overview) [Standard](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/choose-cluster-mode)\n\n*** ** * ** ***\n\nIn Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) version 1.24 or later, you can use the Kubernetes\nvolume expansion feature to change a persistent volume's capacity after\nits creation.\n\nFor more information on volume expansion, see the open source\n[Kubernetes documentation](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/#expanding-persistent-volumes-claims).\n\nPrerequisites\n-------------\n\nVolume expansion has the following prerequisites:\n\n- If the volume you want to resize is managed by a CSI Driver:\n - Ensure the GKE cluster version is 1.16 or later. If the cluster has Windows node pools, ensure the GKE cluster version is 1.18 or later. If you are using the managed [GKE Filestore CSI driver](/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/persistent-volumes/filestore-csi-driver), the cluster version must be 1.21 or later.\n - Check your storage vendor's documentation to verify your CSI driver supports volume expansion. The Compute Engine Persistent Disk CSI driver and the Filestore CSI driver support volume expansion.\n- If the volume you want to resize is managed by an in-tree volume plugin:\n - Ensure the GKE cluster version is 1.11 or greater. While GKE cluster versions 1.11-1.14 support expansion of volumes managed by in-tree plugins, they require all Pods using the volume to be terminated and recreated to complete volume expansion.\n - Check your storage vendor's documentation to verify your in-tree volume plugin supports volume expansion (the Compute Engine Persistent Disk in-tree plugin does).\n- You can't use volume expansion when using [`ReadOnlyMany` access mode](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/#access-modes).\n\nUsing volume expansion\n----------------------\n\n| **Note:** To avoid errors using volume expansion, ensure that you complete the steps in this section in the right sequence.\n\nTo use volume expansion, perform the following tasks:\n\n1. Add `allowVolumeExpansion: true` to your StorageClass, if your StorageClass\n doesn't already have the field. For example:\n\n apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1\n kind: StorageClass\n metadata:\n name: standard\n provisioner: my.driver\n ...\n allowVolumeExpansion: true\n\n2. Request a change in volume capacity by editing your PersistentVolumeClaim's\n `spec.resources.requests.storage` field.\n\n kubectl edit pvc \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003epvc-name\u003c/var\u003e\n\n For example, you could change the\n following PVC from having a 30 gibibyte (GiB) disk to having a 40 GiB disk.\n\n Before editing: \n\n # pvc-demo.yaml\n apiVersion: v1\n kind: PersistentVolumeClaim\n metadata:\n name: pvc-demo\n spec:\n accessModes:\n - ReadWriteOnce\n resources:\n requests:\n storage: 30Gi\n\n After editing: \n\n # pvc-demo.yaml\n apiVersion: v1\n kind: PersistentVolumeClaim\n metadata:\n name: pvc-demo\n spec:\n accessModes:\n - ReadWriteOnce\n resources:\n requests:\n storage: 40Gi\n\n3. Verify the change by viewing PVC. To view your PVC, run the following command:\n\n kubectl get pvc \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003epvc-name\u003c/var\u003e -o yaml\n\n Eventually, you should see the new volume in the `status.capacity` field.\n For example: \n\n ...\n spec:\n accessModes:\n - ReadWriteOnce\n resources:\n requests:\n storage: 40Gi\n storageClassName: standard\n volumeMode: Filesystem\n volumeName: pvc-078b7484-cc8d-4077-9bcb-2c17d8d4550c\n status:\n accessModes:\n - ReadWriteOnce\n capacity:\n storage: 40Gi\n ...\n\n| **Note:** Don't edit the capacity of the PersistentVolume object directly. If you edit the capacity of a PersistentVolume, and then change the size of the corresponding PersistentVolumeClaim to the same value, volume expansion won't happen. Kubernetes will assume that the backing volume was manually resized, and that no expansion is required.\n\nIf the capacity of a PersistentVolume is modified directly, this could lead the\ncontainer file system to be incorrect. To fix these issues, see\n[troubleshoot volume expansion changes](/kubernetes-engine/docs/troubleshooting/troubleshooting-gke-storage#volume_expansion_changes_not_reflecting_in_the_container_filesystem).\n\nManaging volume expansions in StatefulSets\n------------------------------------------\n\nIf you need to increase the size of volumes used by Pods within a\n[StatefulSet](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/stateful-application/basic-stateful-set/#creating-a-statefulset)\nin Kubernetes, you should adjust the `spec.resources.requests.storage` field\nof the PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs) associated with the Pods. Attempting to\nmodify the `volumeClaimTemplates` field directly in the StatefulSet\nobject will cause an error.\n\nAdditionally, if you increase the replica count of the StatefulSet,\nit will still create PVCs of the original size. To permanently change the\nsize of the volumes provisioned for the Pods managed by the StatefulSet,\nyou must delete and recreate the StatefulSet object with the updated size\nthat's specified in the `volumeClaimTemplates` field.\n\nYou can perform the following steps in order to keep the original Pods up and\nrunning while adjusting the StatefulSet to provision future replicas with the\nnew volume size.\n\n1. Save the existing StatefulSet to a file:\n\n kubectl get StatefulSet \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003estatefulset-name\u003c/var\u003e -o yaml \u003e sts-backup.yaml\n\n2. For each PersistentVolumeClaim in the StatefulSet, open the\n `PersistentVolumeClaim` object in a text editor:\n\n kubectl edit pvc \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePVC_NAME\u003c/var\u003e\n\n3. Update the `spec.resources.requests.storage` field to the new volume size,\n like in the following example:\n\n apiVersion: v1\n kind: PersistentVolumeClaim\n metadata:\n # lines omitted for clarity\n spec:\n resources:\n requests:\n storage: 14Gi\n # lines omitted for clarity\n\n For details, see [Expanding Persistent Volumes Claims](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/#expanding-persistent-volumes-claims).\n4. Save your edits and close the text editor. Wait for Kubernetes to update the\n PersistentVolumeClaim with your changes.\n\n5. Remove the StatefulSet object from the cluster while keeping the Pods\n running as standalone Pods:\n\n kubectl delete sts \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003estatefulset-name\u003c/var\u003e --cascade=orphan\n\n6. Edit the new volume storage size in the locally saved `sts-backup.yaml`\n file, specifically the value of `spec.volumeClaimTemplates.spec.resources.requests.storage`\n\n7. Recreate the StatefulSet back in the cluster:\n\n kubectl apply -f sts-backup.yaml\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- Learn more about [volumes](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/).\n- Learn more about [Resizing Persistent Volumes using Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io/blog/2018/07/12/resizing-persistent-volumes-using-kubernetes/)."]]
