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    Elastic Container Instance:Mount a NAS volume

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    Elastic Container Instance:Mount a NAS volume

    Last Updated:Jun 20, 2026

    Apsara File Storage NAS (NAS) is a distributed file system provided by Alibaba Cloud that offers shared access, elastic scaling, high reliability, and high performance. After you deploy the Alibaba Cloud CSI plugin, you can use NAS as a volume in your self-managed Kubernetes cluster. You can use static or dynamic provisioning to mount NAS volumes. This topic explains how to use a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) to mount a NAS volume to an ECI pod.

    Prerequisites

    • A VNode is deployed in your self-managed Kubernetes cluster.

    • Your cluster runs Kubernetes 1.16 or later and has the CSI-Provisioner component deployed.

      Important

      For deployment instructions for the CSI-Provisioner component, see alibaba-cloud-csi-driver. If you encounter issues during deployment, submit an issue on GitHub.

    • If your Kubernetes cluster is deployed in an on-premises data center, ensure a connection exists between the data center and Alibaba Cloud.

    Notes

    • NAS provides shared storage, which means you can mount a single NAS volume to multiple pods. If multiple pods modify the same data concurrently, your application must handle data synchronization.

    • Before you unmount the NAS volume, do not delete the NAS mount point. Otherwise, the operating system may become unresponsive.

    Static provisioning

    1. Create a NAS file system and a mount point.

      1. Log on to the NAS console.

      2. Create a NAS file system and add a mount point.

        The NAS file system and the mount point must be in the same VPC as the VNode. For more information, see Create a file system and Manage mount points.

    2. Create a PV.

      1. Save the following YAML content as a file named static-nas-pv.yaml. Modify the parameters as described in the table below.

        apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: static-nas-pv
  labels:
    alicloud-pvname: static-nas-pv
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 25Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  csi:
    driver: nasplugin.csi.alibabacloud.com
    volumeHandle: static-nas-pv
    volumeAttributes:
      server: "2564f4****-ysu87.cn-beijing.nas.aliyuncs.com"
      path: "/test"
  mountOptions:
  - nolock,tcp,noresvport
  - vers=3

        The following table describes the parameters.

        Parameter

        Description

        driver

        The type of the volume provisioner. Set the value to nasplugin.csi.alibabacloud.com to use the Alibaba Cloud CSI plugin.

        volumeHandle

        A unique identifier for the PV. This must be the same as the name defined in metadata.

        server

        The address of the NAS mount point.

        path

        The subdirectory to mount. For an Extreme NAS file system, the path must start with /share, for example, /share/path1.

        vers

        The NFS protocol version for mounting the NAS volume. Version 3 is recommended. Extreme NAS file systems only support version 3.

      2. Run the following command to create the PV:

        kubectl create -f static-nas-pv.yaml

    3. Create a PVC.

      1. Save the following content as static-nas-pvc.yaml.

        apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: static-nas-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 25Gi
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      alicloud-pvname: static-nas-pv

      2. Run the following command to create the PVC:

        kubectl create -f static-nas-pvc.yaml

    4. Mount the NAS volume to an ECI pod.

      1. Save the following content as static-nas-test.yaml.

        apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: static-nas-test
  labels:
    app: nginx
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      nodeSelector:    
        k8s.aliyun.com/vnode: "true"
      tolerations:     
      - key: k8s.aliyun.com/vnode
        operator: "Equal"
        value: "true"
        effect: "NoSchedule"
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: registry-vpc.cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/eci_open/nginx:1.14.2
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
        volumeMounts:
          - name: pvc-nas
            mountPath: /data
      volumes:
        - name: pvc-nas
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: static-nas-pvc

      2. Run the following command to create the Deployment:

        kubectl create -f static-nas-test.yaml

      3. Verify the result.

        kubectl get pods -o wide

        The expected output is similar to the following:

        NAME                              READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE   IP            NODE                                  NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES

static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-4kggt   1/1     Running   0          95s   172.16.XX.XX   cn-beijing.vnd-2ze8nd8xcl33t4pa****   <none>           <none>
static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-ql6m4   1/1     Running   0          95s   172.16.XX.XX   cn-beijing.vnd-2ze8nd8xcl33t4pa****   <none>           <none>

        Check the directories in the pods. The /data mount directory for the NAS volume is created. A file written to the first pod is also visible in the second, confirming that the two pods share the same NAS storage.

        [root@k8s-master ~]# kubectl exec -it static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-4kggt -- bash
root@static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-4kggt:/# ls
bin  boot  data  dev  etc  home  lib  lib64  media  mnt  opt  proc  root  run  sbin  srv  sys  tmp  usr  var
root@static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-4kggt:/# ls /data
root@static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-4kggt:/# echo "hello nas" > /data/test
root@static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-4kggt:/# ls /data
test
root@static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-4kggt:/# cat /data/test
hello nas
root@static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-4kggt:/# exit
exit
[root@k8s-master ~]# kubectl exec -it static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-ql6m4 -- bash
root@static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-ql6m4:/# ls /data
test
root@static-nas-test-5c4b6d4bd-ql6m4:/# cat /data/test
hello nas

    Dynamic provisioning

    1. Create a NAS file system and a mount point.

      1. Log on to the NAS console.

      2. Create a NAS file system and add a mount point.

        The NAS file system and the mount point must be in the same VPC as the VNode. For more information, see Create a file system and Manage mount points.

    2. Create a StorageClass.

      1. Save the following YAML content as a file named nas-sc.yaml. Modify the parameters as described in the table below.

        apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: alicloud-nas-subpath
mountOptions:
- nolock,tcp,noresvport
- vers=3
parameters:
  volumeAs: subpath
  server: "0cd8b4a576-g****.cn-hangzhou.nas.aliyuncs.com:/k8s/"
provisioner: nasplugin.csi.alibabacloud.com
reclaimPolicy: Retain

        Parameter

        Description

        mountOptions

        The mount options for the NAS volume, such as the NFS protocol version.

        volumeAs

        The type of PV to create. Set this to subpath to use a subdirectory. The CSI-Provisioner automatically creates a subdirectory in the NAS file system.

        server

        The address of the NAS mount point. This is required when you create a PV of the subpath type.

        provisioner

        The type of the volume provisioner. Set the value to nasplugin.csi.alibabacloud.com to use the Alibaba Cloud CSI plugin.

        reclaimPolicy

        The reclaim policy for the PV. The default is Delete. Retain is also supported.

        • Delete: When the PVC is deleted, the PV and the underlying NAS file system are also deleted.

        • Retain: When the PVC is deleted, the PV and the NAS file system are not deleted. You must delete them manually.

        If data security is a high priority, use the Retain policy to prevent accidental data loss.

      2. Run the following command to create the StorageClass:

        kubectl create -f nas-sc.yaml

    3. Create a PVC for the NAS volume.

      1. Save the following content as nas-pvc.yaml.

        kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: nas-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  storageClassName: alicloud-nas-subpath
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 25Gi

      2. Run the following command to create the PVC:

        kubectl create -f nas-pvc.yaml

    4. Mount the NAS volume to an ECI pod.

      1. Save the following content as nas-test.yaml.

        apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nas-test
  labels:
    app: nginx
spec:
  replicas: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      nodeSelector:    
        k8s.aliyun.com/vnode: "true"
      tolerations:     
      - key: k8s.aliyun.com/vnode
        operator: "Equal"
        value: "true"
        effect: "NoSchedule"
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: registry-vpc.cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/eci_open/nginx:1.14.2
        volumeMounts:
          - name: pvc-nas
            mountPath: /data
      volumes:
        - name: pvc-nas
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: nas-pvc

      2. Run the following command to create the Deployment:

        kubectl create -f nas-test.yaml

      3. Verify the result.

        kubectl get pods -o wide

        The expected output is similar to the following:

        NAME                              READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE     IP             NODE                                  NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
nas-test-76c54d4b4-f7b88          1/1     Running   0          4m41s   172.16.XX.XX   cn-beijing.vnd-2ze8nd8xcl33t4pa****   <none>           <none>
nas-test-76c54d4b4-lqz4b          1/1     Running   0          4m41s   172.16.XX.XX   cn-beijing.vnd-2ze8nd8xcl33t4pa****   <none>           <none>

        Check the directories in the pods. The /data mount directory for the NAS volume is created. A file written to the first pod is also visible in the second, confirming that the two pods share the same NAS storage.

        [root@k8s-master ~]# kubectl exec -it nas-test-76c54d4b4-f7b88 -- bash
root@nas-test-76c54d4b4-f7b88:/# ls
bin  boot  data  dev  etc  home  lib  lib64  media  mnt  opt  proc  root  run  sbin  srv  sys  tmp  usr  var
root@nas-test-76c54d4b4-f7b88:/# ls /data
root@nas-test-76c54d4b4-f7b88:/# echo "hello nas" >/data/test
root@nas-test-76c54d4b4-f7b88:/# ls /data
test
root@nas-test-76c54d4b4-f7b88:/# cat /data/test
hello nas
root@nas-test-76c54d4b4-f7b88:/# exit
exit
[root@k8s-master ~]# kubectl exec -it nas-test-76c54d4b4-lqz4b -- bash
root@nas-test-76c54d4b4-lqz4b:/# ls /data
test
root@nas-test-76c54d4b4-lqz4b:/# cat /data/test
hello nas