About Filestore support for Google Kubernetes Engine
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Filestore instances are fully managed file servers on Google Cloud that
you can use as durable storage withReadWriteManyaccess for your Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters.
As a type of durable ornon-ephemeralstorage, your data persists beyond the lifecycle of your GKE
Pods.
Unlike the single read-write access mode inherent to Persistent Disk, Filestore
instances are accessible from multiple GKE nodes simultaneously.
This lets you initiate Pods on any available GKE node, giving you greater
efficiency of your GKE clusters.
As a type offile storage, Filestore
supports multiple concurrent application instances accessing the same file
system, simultaneously.
[[["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 2025-08-29 UTC."],[],[],null,["# About Filestore support for Google Kubernetes Engine\n\n*** ** * ** ***\n\nFilestore instances are fully managed file servers on Google Cloud that\nyou can use as durable storage with [ReadWriteMany](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/persistent-volumes#access_modes)\naccess for your Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters.\n\n- As a type of durable or [non-ephemeral](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/storage-overview)\n storage, your data persists beyond the lifecycle of your GKE\n Pods.\n\n- As durable storage with [ReadWriteMany](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/#access-modes)\n access, your GKE [PersistentVolumes](/kubernetes-engine/docs/concepts/persistent-volumes#persistentvolumes)\n can be mounted as read-write by many nodes.\n\n- Unlike the single read-write access mode inherent to Persistent Disk, Filestore\n instances are accessible from multiple GKE nodes simultaneously.\n This lets you initiate Pods on any available GKE node, giving you greater\n efficiency of your GKE clusters.\n\n- As a type of [file storage](/filestore/docs/overview), Filestore\n supports multiple concurrent application instances accessing the same file\n system, simultaneously.\n\nFor more information, see [Deploy a stateful workload with Filestore](/kubernetes-engine/docs/tutorials/stateful-workload).\n\nFilestore and the GKE Filestore CSI driver\n------------------------------------------\n\nThe GKE Filestore CSI driver is the primary way for you\nto use Filestore instances with GKE and provides the\nfollowing benefits:\n\n- You have access to fully-managed NFS storage through the Kubernetes\n APIs ([`kubectl`](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/access-cluster-api)).\n\n- You can use the GKE Filestore CSI driver to dynamically\n provision your PersistentVolumes.\n\n- You can use the GKE Filestore CSI driver to create\n [CSI volume snapshots](/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/persistent-volumes/volume-snapshots)\n which subsequently create [Filestore backups](/filestore/docs/backups).\n\nFor a detailed list of benefits, see\n[Access instances with the GKE Filestore CSI driver](/filestore/docs/csi-driver).\n\nFilestore multishares for GKE\n-----------------------------\n\nFilestore multishares for GKE combined with the\n[GKE Filestore CSI driver](/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/persistent-volumes/filestore-csi-driver),\nversion 1.27 or later, provides the following benefits:\n\n- Provides a comprehensive view of your PersistentVolumes as one pool of storage.\n\n- Supports [dynamic volume provisioning](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/dynamic-provisioning/),\n scaling share and instance capacity up or down as needed.\n\n- Supports multiple shares with smaller, more flexible sizing for improved\n utilization and cost efficiency of each Filestore instance.\n\nFor more information, see [Filestore multishares for GKE](/filestore/docs/multishares).\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- [Deploy a stateful workload with Filestore](/kubernetes-engine/docs/tutorials/stateful-workload)\n- [StorageClasses and dynamic volume provisioning](/filestore/docs/multishares#storageclasses_and_dynamic_volume_provisioning)\n- [Access Filestore instances with the Filestore CSI driver](/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/persistent-volumes/filestore-csi-driver)\n- [Filestore multishares for GKE](/filestore/docs/multishares)\n- [Optimize storage with Filestore multishares for GKE](/kubernetes-engine/docs/tutorials/optimize-multishares)\n- [Encrypt your GKE clusters' persistent storage using CMEK](/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/using-cmek#create_a_cmek_protected_attached_disk)"]]
