The admin must define `StorageClass` objects that describe named "classes" of storage offered in a cluster. Different classes might map to arbitrary levels or policies determined by the admin. When configuring a `StorageClass` object for persistent volume provisioning, the admin will need to describe the type of provisioner to use and the parameters that will be used by the provisioner when it provisions a `PersistentVolume` belonging to the class.
The name of a StorageClass object is significant, and is how users can request a particular class, by specifying the name in their `PersistentVolumeClaim`. The `provisioner` field must be specified as it determines what volume plugin is used for provisioning PVs. 2 cloud providers will be provided in the beta version of this feature: EBS and GCE. The `parameters` field contains the parameters that describe volumes belonging to the storage class. Different parameters may be accepted depending on the `provisioner`. For example, the value `io1`, for the parameter `type`, and the parameter `iopsPerGB` are specific to EBS . When a parameter is omitted, some default is used.
*`type`: `io1`, `gp2`, `sc1`, `st1`. See AWS docs for details. Default: `gp2`.
*`zone`: AWS zone. If not specified, a random zone in the same region as controller-manager will be chosen.
*`iopsPerGB`: only for `io1` volumes. I/O operations per second per GiB. AWS volume plugin multiplies this with size of requested volume to compute IOPS of the volume and caps it at 20 000 IOPS (maximum supported by AWS, see AWS docs).
The annotation `volume.beta.kubernetes.io/storage-class` is used to access this experimental feature. It is required that this value matches the name of a `StorageClass` configured by the administrator.
In the future, the storage class may remain in an annotation or become a field on the claim itself.
First we note there are no Persistent Volumes in the cluster. After creating a storage class and a claim including that storage class, we see a new PV is created