Managing storage classes

Designing a storage class

The StorageClass concept guide will help you understand what they do and how you configure them.

Creating a storage class

Once you have a storage class file, run:

kubectl create -f <storage-class-file>

Deleting a storage class

To delete a storage class from Kubernetes, run:

kubectl delete storageclass <storage-class>

Any persistent volumes that were created through this storage class will remain untouched, and Trident will continue to manage them.

Viewing the existing storage classes

# Kubernetes storage classes
kubectl get storageclass

# Kubernetes storage class detail
kubectl get storageclass <storage-class> -o json

# Trident's synchronized storage classes
tridentctl get storageclass

# Trident's synchronized storage class detail
tridentctl get storageclass <storage-class> -o json

Setting a default storage class

Kubernetes v1.6 added the ability to set a default storage class. This is the storage class that will be used to provision a PV if a user does not specify one in a PVC.

You can define a default storage class by setting the annotation storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class to true in the storage class definition. According to the specification, any other value or absence of the annotation is interpreted as false.

It is possible to configure an existing storage class to be the default storage class by using the following command:

kubectl patch storageclass <storage-class-name> -p '{"metadata": {"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"true"}}}'

Similarly, you can remove the default storage class annotation by using the following command:

kubectl patch storageclass <storage-class-name> -p '{"metadata": {"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"false"}}}'

There are also examples in the Trident installer bundle that include this annotation.

Note

You should only have one default storage class in your cluster at any given time. Kubernetes does not technically prevent you from having more than one, but it will behave as if there is no default storage class at all.

Identifying the Trident backends that a storage class will use

This is an example of the kind of questions you can answer with the JSON that tridentctl outputs for Trident backend objects. This uses the jq utility, which you may need to install first.

tridentctl get storageclass -o json | jq  '[.items[] | {storageClass: .Config.name, backends: [.storage]|unique}]'