Volume Snapshots

Many storage systems provide the ability to create a snapshot of a persistent volume. A snapshot represents a point-in-time copy of a volume. It can be used either to provision a new volume (pre-populated with the snapshot data) or to restore the existing volume to a previous state (represented by the snapshot). For more information, see the Kubernetes documentation.

This tutorial demonstrates how to create and use a volume snapshot.

Prerequisites

  • You need to create a workspace, a project and a user (project-regular). The user must be invited to the project with the role of operator. For more information, see Create Workspaces, Projects, Users and Roles.

  • Kubernetes version 1.17+.

  • Your underlying storage plugin supports snapshots.

  • You have an available volume so that you can create a snapshot for it. For more information, see Volumes.

Create a Volume Snapshot

  1. Log in to the web console of KubeSphere as project-regular. On the Volumes page of your project, select a volume that you want to create a snapshot for.

  2. On the details page, select Create Snapshot from the More drop-down menu.

  3. In the displayed dialog box, set a name for the snapshot which serves as a unique identifier and select a Volume Snapshot Class. Click OK to finish.

  4. Newly-created snapshots is displayed on the Volume Snapshots list.

Use a Snapshot to Create a Volume

There are two ways for you to use a snapshot to create a volume.

Create a volume from the snapshot details page

  1. Log in to the web console of KubeSphere as project-regular. On a snapshot’s details page, click Apply to use the snapshot. Generally, the steps are the same as creating a volume directly.

  2. In the displayed dialog box, set a name for the volume. Click Next to continue.

    Note

    The resource you create is a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC).

  3. On the Volume Settings tab, select an access mode and click Next.

  4. On the Advanced Settings tab, add metadata for the volume such as labels and annotations. Click Create to finish.

  5. You can see the volume created appear on the Volumes page.

Create a volume from the Volumes page

  1. Log in to the web console of KubeSphere as project-regular. On the Volumes page of a project, click Create.

  2. In the displayed dialog box, set a name for the volume. Click Next to continue.

  3. On the Volume Settings tab, select From Volume Snapshot under the Method section. Select a snapshot and an access mode, and click Next to continue.

  4. On the Advanced Settings tab, add metadata for the volume such as labels and annotations. Click Create to finish creating the volume.

  5. The volume created is displayed on the Volumes page.