CSI NFS Dynamic Provisioning Lab

Compatible with Minikube, Kind, or any Kubernetes 1.20+

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes cluster
• kubectl installed
• Linux-based system (for NFS setup)
• Internet access for pulling container images

Step 1: Install & Configure NFS Server (On Host or VM)

On your host or any reachable machine (e.g. Minikube VM), install NFS server:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nfs-kernel-server -y

sudo mkdir -p /srv/nfs/kubedata
sudo chown nobody:nogroup /srv/nfs/kubedata
sudo chmod 777 /srv/nfs/kubedata

echo "/srv/nfs/kubedata *(rw,sync,no_subtree_check,no_root_squash)" | sudo tee -a /etc/exports
sudo exportfs -rav

Start the service:

sudo systemctl enable nfs-server
sudo systemctl start nfs-server

💡 On Minikube, use minikube ssh and perform the above commands inside the VM.

Step 2: Deploy the NFS CSI Driver

Install the CSI NFS driver (official):

kubectl apply -k "github.com/kubernetes-csi/csi-driver-nfs/deploy/kubernetes/overlays/stable?ref=release-1.6"

Verify:

kubectl get pods -n kube-system -l app=csi-nfs-controller
kubectl get daemonset -n kube-system -l app=csi-nfs-node

Step 3: Create a StorageClass

Create a file called nfs-sc.yaml:

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: nfs-csi
provisioner: nfs.csi.k8s.io
parameters:
  server: <NFS_SERVER_IP>
  share: /srv/nfs/kubedata
reclaimPolicy: Retain
volumeBindingMode: Immediate

🔁 Replace <NFS_SERVER_IP> with the IP address of the machine where the NFS server is running.

Apply it:

kubectl apply -f nfs-sc.yaml

Step 4: Create a PVC + Pod using the NFS StorageClass

Create nfs-pvc-pod.yaml:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: nfs-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  storageClassName: nfs-csi
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: nfs-app
spec:
  containers:
  - name: app
    image: busybox
    command: [ "sh", "-c", "echo 'Hello from NFS!' > /data/hello.txt && sleep 3600" ]
    volumeMounts:
    - mountPath: /data
      name: nfs-vol
  volumes:
  - name: nfs-vol
    persistentVolumeClaim:
      claimName: nfs-pvc

Apply it:

kubectl apply -f nfs-pvc-pod.yaml

Step 5: Verify NFS Volume Mount and File Write

Check logs or exec into pod:

kubectl exec -it nfs-app -- cat /data/hello.txt

You should see:

Hello from NFS!

Then on the NFS server:

cat /srv/nfs/kubedata/*/data/hello.txt

You'll see the same file — confirming dynamic provisioning!

Cleanup

kubectl delete -f nfs-pvc-pod.yaml
kubectl delete storageclass nfs-csi

What You Learned

• How to set up an NFS server
• Install the NFS CSI driver
• Define a StorageClass that supports dynamic provisioning
• Use a PVC and automatically provision NFS-backed volumes
• Verify cross-node shared storage (ReadWriteMany)