# Configure a Pod to Use a Volume for Storage
LLMS index: [llms.txt](/llms.txt)
---
This page shows how to configure a Pod to use a Volume for storage.
A Container's file system lives only as long as the Container does. So when a
Container terminates and restarts, filesystem changes are lost. For more
consistent storage that is independent of the Container, you can use a
[Volume](/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/). This is especially important for stateful
applications, such as key-value stores (such as Redis) and databases.
## Before you begin
You need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must
be configured to communicate with your cluster. It is recommended to run this tutorial on a cluster with at least two nodes that are not acting as control plane hosts. If you do not already have a
cluster, you can create one by using
minikube
or you can use one of these Kubernetes playgrounds:
To check the version, enter kubectl version.
## Configure a volume for a Pod
In this exercise, you create a Pod that runs one Container. This Pod has a
Volume of type
[emptyDir](/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/#emptydir)
that lasts for the life of the Pod, even if the Container terminates and
restarts. Here is the configuration file for the Pod:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: redis
spec:
containers:
- name: redis
image: redis
volumeMounts:
- name: redis-storage
mountPath: /data/redis
volumes:
- name: redis-storage
emptyDir: {}
1. Create the Pod:
```shell
kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/pods/storage/redis.yaml
```
1. Verify that the Pod's Container is running, and then watch for changes to
the Pod:
```shell
kubectl get pod redis --watch
```
The output looks like this:
```console
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
redis 1/1 Running 0 13s
```
1. In another terminal, get a shell to the running Container:
```shell
kubectl exec -it redis -- /bin/bash
```
1. In your shell, go to `/data/redis`, and then create a file:
```shell
root@redis:/data# cd /data/redis/
root@redis:/data/redis# echo Hello > test-file
```
1. In your shell, list the running processes:
```shell
root@redis:/data/redis# apt-get update
root@redis:/data/redis# apt-get install procps
root@redis:/data/redis# ps aux
```
The output is similar to this:
```console
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
redis 1 0.1 0.1 33308 3828 ? Ssl 00:46 0:00 redis-server *:6379
root 12 0.0 0.0 20228 3020 ? Ss 00:47 0:00 /bin/bash
root 15 0.0 0.0 17500 2072 ? R+ 00:48 0:00 ps aux
```
1. In your shell, kill the Redis process:
```shell
root@redis:/data/redis# kill
```
where `` is the Redis process ID (PID).
1. In your original terminal, watch for changes to the Redis Pod. Eventually,
you will see something like this:
```console
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
redis 1/1 Running 0 13s
redis 0/1 Completed 0 6m
redis 1/1 Running 1 6m
```
At this point, the Container has terminated and restarted. This is because the
Redis Pod has a
[restartPolicy](/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.36/#podspec-v1-core)
of `Always`.
1. Get a shell into the restarted Container:
```shell
kubectl exec -it redis -- /bin/bash
```
1. In your shell, go to `/data/redis`, and verify that `test-file` is still there.
```shell
root@redis:/data/redis# cd /data/redis/
root@redis:/data/redis# ls
test-file
```
1. Delete the Pod that you created for this exercise:
```shell
kubectl delete pod redis
```
## What's next
- See [Volume](/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.36/#volume-v1-core).
- See [Pod](/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.36/#pod-v1-core).
- In addition to the local disk storage provided by `emptyDir`, Kubernetes
supports many different network-attached storage solutions, including PD on
GCE and EBS on EC2, which are preferred for critical data and will handle
details such as mounting and unmounting the devices on the nodes. See
[Volumes](/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/) for more details.
