Skip to content

PersistentVolume Reclaim Policy

The PersistentVolume Reclaim Policy defines what happens to the Persistent Volume (PV) after the [[PersistentVolumeClaim]] (PVC) bound to it is deleted.^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-ithelp-day20-readme.md]

Policy Types

Kubernetes supports three types of reclaim policies^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-ithelp-day20-readme.md]:

  • Retain: The volume enters a Released status and requires manual reclamation. The data is preserved, but the PV is not available for new claims until an administrator manually handles it.
  • Recycle (Deprecated): This policy executes a data wipe command (e.g., rm -rf /thevolume/*) and makes the volume available again. It is deprecated in favor of Dynamic Provisioning.
  • Delete: This policy automatically deletes both the PersistentVolume object and the associated backend storage resource (such as a cloud disk) when the PVC is deleted.

Volume Lifecycle Status

When a reclaim policy is applied, the PV transitions through specific states^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-ithelp-day20-readme.md]:

  • Available: The PV is free and ready to be bound.
  • Bound: The PV is currently bound to a PVC.
  • Released: The PVC has been deleted, but the PV has not yet been reclaimed by the cluster.
  • Failed: The automatic reclamation attempt has failed.
  • [[PersistentVolume]]
  • [[PersistentVolumeClaim]]
  • StorageClass

Sources

^[400-devops-06-kubernetes-k8s-ithelp-day20-readme.md]