gke-storage

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Manages GKE storage, including PVCs, PersistentVolumes, Filestore, and GCS FUSE. Use when configuring GKE storage, creating PVCs, or setting up GCS FUSE on GKE. Don't use for database administration or replication strategies outside volume provisioning context.

6installs

Sourcegoogle/skills

Added on2026-07-04

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add google/skills gke-storage

SKILL.md Content

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GKE Storage

This reference covers storage configuration for GKE clusters including persistent disks, file storage, and cloud storage integration.

MCP Tools:

apply_k8s_manifest

,

get_k8s_resource

,

describe_k8s_resource

,

get_cluster

Golden Path Storage Defaults

The golden path Autopilot config enables these CSI drivers:

Driver	Golden Path	Access Mode	Use Case
Compute Engine	Enabled (default)	ReadWriteOnce	Block storage for
: Persistent Disk : : : databases, :
: CSI : : : single-pod workloads :
Google Cloud	Enabled	ReadWriteMany	Shared NFS for
: Filestore CSI : : : multi-pod access :
Cloud Storage	Enabled	ReadWriteMany /	Mount GCS buckets as
: FUSE CSI : : ReadOnlyMany : volumes :
Parallelstore	Enabled	ReadWriteMany	High-performance
: CSI : : : parallel file system :
Boot disk type	`pd-balanced`	N/A	Node boot disks

StorageClasses

Default StorageClasses

GKE provides built-in StorageClasses:

StorageClass	Disk Type	Use Case
`standard-rwo`	`pd-standard`	Cost-effective, low IOPS
`premium-rwo`	`pd-ssd`	High IOPS, databases
`standard-rwx`	Filestore (Basic HDD)	Shared NFS
`premium-rwx`	Filestore (Basic SSD)	Shared NFS, higher performance

Custom StorageClass

yaml

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: fast-regional
provisioner: pd.csi.storage.gke.io
parameters:
  type: pd-ssd
  replication-type: regional-pd    # Replicate across 2 zones
volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer
allowVolumeExpansion: true         # Always enable for production

PersistentVolumeClaims

Block Storage (ReadWriteOnce)

yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: database-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteOnce
  storageClassName: premium-rwo
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 100Gi

Shared File Storage (ReadWriteMany via Filestore)

yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: shared-data
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  storageClassName: standard-rwx
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Ti    # Filestore minimum is 1 TiB for Basic tier

GCS Bucket Mount (Cloud Storage FUSE)

Mount a GCS bucket as a volume without a PVC:

yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: gcs-reader
  annotations:
    gke-gcsfuse/volumes: "true"
spec:
  containers:
  - name: reader
    image: busybox
    command: ["ls", "/data"]
    volumeMounts:
    - name: gcs-bucket
      mountPath: /data
  volumes:
  - name: gcs-bucket
    csi:
      driver: gcsfuse.csi.storage.gke.io
      readOnly: true
      volumeAttributes:
        bucketName: <BUCKET_NAME>

Requires Workload Identity for the pod's service account to have
storage.objectViewer
on the bucket.

Volume Expansion

If

allowVolumeExpansion: true

is set on the StorageClass, resize by updating the PVC:

bash

# kubectl
kubectl patch pvc <PVC_NAME> -p '{"spec":{"resources":{"requests":{"storage":"200Gi"}}}}'

# MCP (preferred)
patch_k8s_resource(parent="...", resourceType="persistentvolumeclaim", name="<PVC_NAME>",
  patch='{"spec":{"resources":{"requests":{"storage":"200Gi"}}}}')

Kubernetes automatically resizes the filesystem.

Best Practices

Always enable volume expansion: Set
```
allowVolumeExpansion: true
```
on all StorageClasses
Use regional PDs for production:
```
replication-type: regional-pd
```
replicates across 2 zones for HA
Use
WaitForFirstConsumer
: Ensures the PV is provisioned in the same zone as the pod
Choose the right disk type:
```
pd-ssd
```
for databases,
```
pd-balanced
```
(golden path default) for general use,
```
pd-standard
```
for cold storage
Use Filestore for shared access: When multiple pods need to read/write the same files
Use GCS FUSE for data pipelines: Mount buckets directly for ML training data, logs, etc.
Back up PVCs: Use Backup for GKE (see the
```
gke-backup-dr
```
skill) to protect persistent data

gke-storage

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

GKE Storage

Golden Path Storage Defaults

StorageClasses

Default StorageClasses

Custom StorageClass

PersistentVolumeClaims

Block Storage (ReadWriteOnce)

Shared File Storage (ReadWriteMany via Filestore)

GCS Bucket Mount (Cloud Storage FUSE)

Volume Expansion

Best Practices