Container Service for Kubernetes:Use dynamically provisioned cloud disk volumes

Step 1: Create a StorageClass

1. Log on to the ACK console and click Clusters in the left-side navigation pane.

2. On the Clusters page, click the target cluster name. In the left-side pane, choose Volumes > StorageClasses.

3. In the upper-right corner of the StorageClasses page, click Create.

4. In the Create dialog box, configure the parameters.

   Specific ECS instance types do not support ESSDs or elastic ephemeral disks. See FAQ about Elastic Block Storage.

   Parameter	Required	Description
   Name	Yes	The name of the StorageClass. Follow the format requirements displayed in the console.
   PV Type	Yes	Select Cloud Disk.
   Parameter	Yes	Specifies the disk category using the type key. Default: cloud_essd. Valid values: cloud_essd (Enterprise SSD), cloud_regional_disk_auto (Regional ESSDs), elastic_ephemeral_disk_premium (premium elastic ephemeral disk), elastic_ephemeral_disk_standard (standard elastic ephemeral disk), cloud_ssd (standard SSD), cloud_efficiency (ultra disk). To specify fallback categories, set multiple values in order of preference — for example, type: cloud_ssd,cloud_essd. The system tries each category in sequence and stops when a disk is created. To pin disk creation to one or more zones, add a zoneId parameter — for example, cn-beijing-a for a single zone or cn-beijing-a, cn-beijing-b for multiple zones.
   Reclaim Policy	Yes	Controls what happens to the PV and disk when the PVC is deleted. Default: Delete (PV and disk are deleted). Set to Retain to keep the PV and disk for manual cleanup — recommended when data loss would be costly.
   Binding Mode	No	Default: Immediate (disk is created before the pod is scheduled).

5. Click Create. The new StorageClass appears on the StorageClasses page.

Step 2: Create a PVC

1. In the left-side navigation pane of the cluster details page, choose Volumes > Persistent Volume Claims.

2. In the upper-right corner of the Persistent Volume Claims page, click Create.

3. In the Create PVC dialog box, configure the parameters.

   Parameter	Required	Description
   PVC Type	Yes	Select Cloud Disk.
   Name	Yes	The PVC name. Must be unique within the namespace.
   Allocation Mode	Yes	Select Use StorageClass.
   Existing Storage Class	Yes	Click Select, find the StorageClass created in Step 1, and click Select in the Actions column.
   Capacity	Yes	The storage capacity to claim. Minimum: 20 GiB.
   Access Mode	No	Default: ReadWriteOnce (single-node read/write).

4. Click Create. The PVC appears on the Persistent Volume Claims page with a bound PV.

Step 3: Deploy an application

1. In the left-side navigation pane of the cluster details page, choose Workloads > StatefulSets.

2. In the upper-right corner of the StatefulSets page, click Create from Image.

3. Configure the application. When setting up volumes, select Cloud Storage and mount the PVC created in Step 2. In this example, the disk volume is mounted to /tmp — container data written to /tmp is stored in the disk volume. For other application parameters, see Use a StatefulSet to create a stateful application.

   

4. Click Create. The application is deployed and uses the disk volume for persistent storage.

Step 1: Create a StorageClass

In multi-zone clusters, the StorageClass determines which disk type to provision before scheduling the pod.

1. Create a file named storage-class-csi.yaml with the following content:

   Parameter	Required	Description
   provisioner	Yes	Set to diskplugin.csi.alibabacloud.com. This identifies the Alibaba Cloud disk CSI provisioner.
   type	Yes	The disk category. Valid values: cloud_auto (ESSD AutoPL disk), cloud_essd (ESSD, default), cloud_essd_entry (ESSD Entry disk), cloud_ssd (standard SSD), cloud_efficiency (ultra disk), elastic_ephemeral_disk_standard (standard elastic ephemeral disk), elastic_ephemeral_disk_premium (premium elastic ephemeral disk), cloud_regional_disk_auto (Regional ESSDs). Specify multiple values as a comma-separated fallback list. For disk selection guidance, see EBS pricing, Block storage performance, and Overview of instance families.
   encrypted	No	Whether to encrypt the disk. Default: false.
   reclaimPolicy	Yes	Controls what happens to the PV and disk when the PVC is deleted. Delete removes both automatically. Retain keeps them for manual cleanup — use Retain when data loss would be costly. Default: Delete.
   allowVolumeExpansion	No	Set to true to allow online disk expansion.
   volumeBindingMode	No	Default: Immediate (disk is provisioned before the pod is scheduled).

   apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
   kind: StorageClass
   metadata:
     name: alicloud-disk-ssd-b
   # Use diskplugin.csi.alibabacloud.com as the provisioner for Alibaba Cloud disks.
   provisioner: diskplugin.csi.alibabacloud.com
   parameters:
     # Disk category fallback order: ESSD → standard SSD → ultra disk.
     # The system tries each value in sequence and stops when a disk is created.
     type: cloud_essd,cloud_ssd,cloud_efficiency
     # Optional. Set to "true" to encrypt the disk at rest.
     encrypted: "false"
   # Retain: keeps the PV and disk when the PVC is deleted (manual cleanup required).
   # Delete: removes the PV and disk automatically when the PVC is deleted.
   reclaimPolicy: Retain
   # Allows online disk expansion without downtime.
   allowVolumeExpansion: true
   # Immediate: provisions the disk before scheduling the pod.
   volumeBindingMode: Immediate

2. Apply the StorageClass:

   kubectl apply -f storage-class-csi.yaml

3. Verify the StorageClass in the ACK console: log on, click Clusters, click the target cluster name, then choose Volumes > StorageClasses. The new StorageClass appears in the list.

Step 2: Create a PVC

1. Create a file named pvc-ssd.yaml with the following content:

   Parameter	Required	Description
   name	Yes	The PVC name.
   accessModes	Yes	The access mode for the provisioned PV.
   volumeMode	No	The format in which the disk is mounted. Filesystem is supported.
   storageClassName	Yes	The name of the StorageClass to use for provisioning.
   storage	Yes	The storage capacity to claim. Minimum: 20 GiB.

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
   metadata:
     name: disk-pvc
   spec:
     accessModes:
     - ReadWriteOnce
     volumeMode: Filesystem
     resources:
       requests:
         storage: 25Gi
     storageClassName: alicloud-disk-ssd-b

2. Create the PVC:

   kubectl create -f pvc-ssd.yaml

3. Verify the PVC in the ACK console: in the cluster details page, choose Volumes > Persistent Volume Claims. The PVC appears in the list with a bound PV.

Step 3: Deploy an application

1. Create a file named pvc-dynamic.yaml with the following content:

   Parameter	Description
   mountPath	The path inside the container where the disk volume is mounted.
   claimName	The name of the PVC to mount. Must match the PVC created in Step 2.

   apiVersion: apps/v1
   kind: StatefulSet
   metadata:
     name: nginx-dynamic
   spec:
     selector:
       matchLabels:
         app: nginx
     template:
       metadata:
         labels:
           app: nginx
       spec:
         containers:
         - name: nginx
           image: nginx
           ports:
           - containerPort: 80
             name: web
           volumeMounts:
           - name: pvc-disk
             mountPath: /data    # Path inside the container where the disk is mounted.
         volumes:
           - name: pvc-disk
             persistentVolumeClaim:
               claimName: disk-pvc    # Must match the PVC name created in Step 2.

2. Deploy the application:

   kubectl create -f pvc-dynamic.yaml

3. Verify the deployment in the ACK console: in the cluster details page, choose Workloads > StatefulSets. The application appears in the list.