Author: Chris Henzie (Google)
With the release of Kubernetes v1.29, the ReadWriteOncePod volume access mode
has graduated to general availability: it’s part of Kubernetes’ stable API. In
this blog post, I’ll take a closer look at this access mode and what it does.
What is ReadWriteOncePod?
ReadWriteOncePod is an access mode for
PersistentVolumes (PVs)
and PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs)
introduced in Kubernetes v1.22. This access mode enables you to restrict volume
access to a single pod in the cluster, ensuring that only one pod can write to
the volume at a time. This can be particularly useful for stateful workloads
that require single-writer access to storage.
For more context on access modes and how ReadWriteOncePod works read
What are access modes and why are they important?
in the Introducing Single Pod Access Mode for PersistentVolumes article from 2021.
How can I start using ReadWriteOncePod?
The ReadWriteOncePod volume access mode is available by default in Kubernetes
versions v1.27 and beyond. In Kubernetes v1.29 and later, the Kubernetes API
always recognizes this access mode.
Note that ReadWriteOncePod is
only supported for CSI volumes,
and before using this feature, you will need to update the following
CSI sidecars
to these versions or greater:
To start using ReadWriteOncePod, you need to create a PVC with the
ReadWriteOncePod access mode:
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
name: single-writer-only
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOncePod # Allows only a single pod to access single-writer-only.
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
If your storage plugin supports
Dynamic provisioning, then
new PersistentVolumes will be created with the ReadWriteOncePod access mode
applied.
Read Migrating existing PersistentVolumes
for details on migrating existing volumes to use ReadWriteOncePod.
How can I learn more?
Please see the blog posts alpha,
beta, and
KEP-2485
for more details on the ReadWriteOncePod access mode and motivations for CSI
spec changes.
How do I get involved?
The Kubernetes #csi Slack channel
and any of the standard
SIG Storage communication channels
are great methods to reach out to the SIG Storage and the CSI teams.
Special thanks to the following people whose thoughtful reviews and feedback helped shape this feature:
- Abdullah Gharaibeh (ahg-g)
- Aldo Culquicondor (alculquicondor)
- Antonio Ojea (aojea)
- David Eads (deads2k)
- Jan Šafránek (jsafrane)
- Joe Betz (jpbetz)
- Kante Yin (kerthcet)
- Michelle Au (msau42)
- Tim Bannister (sftim)
- Xing Yang (xing-yang)
If you’re interested in getting involved with the design and development of CSI
or any part of the Kubernetes storage system, join the
Kubernetes Storage Special Interest Group (SIG).
We’re rapidly growing and always welcome new contributors.
Originally posted on Kubernetes – Production-Grade Container Orchestration
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