NFS storage

Provisioning, mounts, and PVC templates.

Process to deploy NFS via helm
Ensure that NFS common is installed on each of the nodes in the cluster: apt install nfs-common -y
On your NAS add the IP subnet or each node IP address to the NAS shared folder called k8s under the NFS host access permissions. Ensure the read/write permission is selected otherwise the test pod will not start properly with an error: ProvisioningFailed: read-only file system

Create a values file specifying the path and server:

vi ~/manifests/nfs-provisioning-nfs-subdir-external-provisioner-values.yaml

nfs:
  path: /k8s
  server: nas.reids.net.au
storageClass:
  defaultClass: true

Install referencing the values file:

helm upgrade --install nfs-subdir-external-provisioner nfs-subdir-external-provisioner/nfs-subdir-external-provisioner \
--namespace nfs-provisioning --create-namespace \
--values ~/manifests/nfs-provisioning-nfs-subdir-external-provisioner-values.yaml

Release "nfs-subdir-external-provisioner" does not exist. Installing it now.
NAME: nfs-subdir-external-provisioner
LAST DEPLOYED: Sun Oct  5 15:54:16 2025
NAMESPACE: nfs-provisioning
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None

Confirm pod creation:

kubectl get pods -n nfs-provisioning -o wide

NAME                                               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE   IP             NODE       NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
nfs-subdir-external-provisioner-666c67448b-2bhks   1/1     Running   0          55s   10.70.200.12   dev-w-p1   <none>           <none>

Confirm storage class

kubectl get storageclass

NAME                   PROVISIONER                                     RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE   ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
nfs-client (default)   cluster.local/nfs-subdir-external-provisioner   Delete          Immediate           true                   55s

Functional test — create a PVC + Pod

Create a namespace called: dev

kubectl create namespace dev

namespace/dev created

Create a simple test manifest: vi nfs-test-dev.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: dev
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: nfs-test-pvc
  namespace: dev
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
  storageClassName: nfs-client
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: nfs-test-pod
  namespace: dev
spec:
  containers:
    - name: test
      image: busybox
      command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo Hello from NFS in DEV > /mnt/testfile && sleep 3600']
      volumeMounts:
        - name: nfs-volume
          mountPath: /mnt
  volumes:
    - name: nfs-volume
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: nfs-test-pvc

Apply

kubectl apply -f nfs-test-dev.yaml

Warning: resource namespaces/dev is missing the kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration annotation which is required by kubectl apply. kubectl apply should only be used on resources created declaratively by either kubectl create --save-config or kubectl apply. The missing annotation will be patched automatically.
namespace/dev configured
persistentvolumeclaim/nfs-test-pvc created
pod/nfs-test-pod created

Check PVC:

kubectl -n dev get pvc

NAME           STATUS   VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   VOLUMEATTRIBUTESCLASS   AGE
nfs-test-pvc   Bound    pvc-22200691-234e-43e7-a9c7-73e6a810cf99   1Gi        RWX            nfs-client     <unset>                 52s

Check that the test file has been written. Expect to see: Hello from NFS in DEV

kubectl -n dev exec -it nfs-test-pod -- cat /mnt/testfile

Hello from NFS in DEV

Clean up

kubectl delete pod nfs-test-pod -n dev
kubectl delete pvc nfs-test-pvc -n dev

pod "nfs-test-pod" deleted
persistentvolumeclaim "nfs-test-pvc" deleted

kubectl get all -A | grep nfs-test || echo "✅ No test resources remain"

✅ No test resources remain

NFS Summary

The NFS setup provides dynamic storage provisioning through the nfs-subdir-external-provisioner Helm chart. By linking the NAS shared folder (/k8s) with appropriate read/write access for all cluster nodes, Kubernetes can automatically create and manage persistent storage directories for workloads. After deployment, verification confirmed that the NFS provisioner, storage class, and test pod functioned correctly, demonstrating successful write access to the NAS. The environment was then cleaned up, leaving no residual resources.

NFS Summary​

NFS Summary