DockerCLI/experimental/plugins_volume.md

Experimental: Docker volume plugins

Docker volume plugins enable Docker deployments to be integrated with external storage systems, such as Amazon EBS, and enable data volumes to persist beyond the lifetime of a single Docker host. See the plugin documentation for more information.

This is an experimental feature. For information on installing and using experimental features, see the experimental feature overview.

Command-line changes

This experimental feature introduces two changes to the docker run command:

• The --volume-driver flag is introduced.
• The -v syntax is changed to accept a volume name a first component.

Example:

$ docker run -ti -v volumename:/data --volume-driver=flocker busybox sh

By specifying a volume name in conjunction with a volume driver, volume plugins such as Flocker, once installed, can be used to manage volumes external to a single host, such as those on EBS. In this example, "volumename" is passed through to the volume plugin as a user-given name for the volume which allows the plugin to associate it with an external volume beyond the lifetime of a single container or container host. This can be used, for example, to move a stateful container from one server to another.

The volumename must not begin with a /.

API changes

The container creation endpoint (/containers/create) accepts a VolumeDriver field of type string allowing to specify the name of the driver. It's default value of "local" (the default driver for local volumes).

Related GitHub PRs and issues

• #13161 Volume refactor and external volume plugins

Send us feedback and comments on #13420, or on the usual Google Groups (docker-user, docker-dev) and IRC channels.