Dynamic Provisioning (Enterprise)

Note

Dynamic provisioning is an Enterprise-only feature. It requires the admin server (admin.flexfs) and an account token with permission to create volumes. Community deployments should use static provisioning.

Dynamic provisioning allows Kubernetes to automatically create a new flexFS volume when a PersistentVolumeClaim is submitted. The CSI controller calls the admin server REST API to create the volume, retrieves a volume token, and makes it available to pods.

Prerequisites

• The flexFS CSI driver is installed
• An Enterprise admin server is running and reachable from the cluster
• You have an account token with volume creation permissions

Step 1: Create a Secret

The CSI driver needs the admin server address and an account token to create volumes. Store these in a Kubernetes Secret:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: flexfs-secret
  namespace: default
stringData:
  adminAddr: "<ADMIN-ADDR>"
  token: "<ACCOUNT-TOKEN>"

Replace <ADMIN-ADDR> with the address of your admin server (for example, admin.example.com:443) and <ACCOUNT-TOKEN> with a valid account token.

kubectl apply -f secret.yaml

Caution

The Secret contains sensitive credentials. Restrict access with RBAC and consider using a secrets management solution in production.

Step 2: Create a StorageClass

The StorageClass tells Kubernetes to use the flexFS CSI provisioner and specifies volume creation parameters:

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: flexfs-dynamic
provisioner: csi.flexfs.io
parameters:
  csiProvisionerSecretNamespace: default
  csiProvisionerSecretName: flexfs-secret
  csiNodePublishSecretNamespace: default
  csiNodePublishSecretName: flexfs-secret

You can add optional parameters to control volume settings at creation time. See the StorageClass parameters reference for all options.

Example with custom parameters

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: flexfs-encrypted
provisioner: csi.flexfs.io
parameters:
  csiProvisionerSecretNamespace: default
  csiProvisionerSecretName: flexfs-secret
  csiNodePublishSecretNamespace: default
  csiNodePublishSecretName: flexfs-secret
  blockSize: "4Mi"
  compression: "true"
  compressionAlgo: "lz4"
  encryption: "true"

Step 3: Create a PersistentVolumeClaim

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: flexfs-dynamic
  namespace: default
spec:
  storageClassName: flexfs-dynamic
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 8Ei

Tip

The storage: 8Ei request is a placeholder. FlexFS volumes are not pre-allocated — they grow dynamically as data is written. Kubernetes requires a storage request, so use a large value.

kubectl apply -f dynamic-volume.yaml

Once the PVC is created, the CSI provisioner will:

1. Call CreateVolume on the flexFS CSI controller
2. The controller sends a POST /v1/volumes request to the admin server to create a new volume
3. A PersistentVolume is automatically created and bound to the PVC

Step 4: Use the volume in a pod

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: my-app
spec:
  containers:
    - name: app
      image: ubuntu:latest
      command: ["sleep", "infinity"]
      volumeMounts:
        - name: data
          mountPath: /data
  volumes:
    - name: data
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: flexfs-dynamic

Volume deletion

When the PVC is deleted (and the reclaim policy allows it), the CSI controller calls the admin server to retire the volume via DELETE /v1/volumes/for-name/<volume-name>.

Access modes

FlexFS supports the following CSI access modes:

Access mode	Supported	Description
ReadWriteMany	Yes	Multiple pods can read and write simultaneously
ReadWriteOnce	Yes	Single pod read-write access
ReadOnlyMany	Yes	Multiple pods with read-only access

Next steps

• StorageClass parameters reference
• Static provisioning for pre-existing volumes
• Troubleshooting