Volume trash can

The trash can feature provides protection against accidental or inadvertent volume deletions which could result in loss of data. In a clustered environment such as Kubernetes, unintended deletion of a PV or a namespace will cause volumes to be lost. This feature is recommended in any environment which is prone to such inadvertent deletions, as it can help to prevent data loss.

Enable the trash can

To enable the trash can feature on a cluster, run the following command:

pxctl cluster options update --volume-expiration-minutes <minutes>

<minutes> is an integer that represents the number of minutes a volume snapshot is retained after you delete a volume.

Check trash can settings

To check a cluster's options to see if the trash can is enabled, and what the retention period is, run the following command:

pxctl cluster options list | grep expiration

Volume expiration minutes                               : 0s

Restore a volume

When the trash can is enabled, you can list volumes in the trash can with the following command:

pxctl volume list --trashcan

DELETE TIME                   ID                  NAME                  SIZE   HA  SHARED  ENCRYPTED  IO_PRIORITY  STATUS         DELETE_TIMER
Tue Mar 29 21:51:16 UTC 2022  780196670250220779  newvol-tc-1648590676  1 GiB  1   no      no         LOW          up - detached  9m33s

In the sample output above, the trash can volume name is in the format <original-vol-name>-tc-<original-vol-id>.

To restore a volume, use the following command:

pxctl volume restore --trashcan <trashcan-vol-id> <desired-vol-name>

Successfully restored: <desired-vol-name> from <trashcan-vol-id>

This removes the volume from the trash can as well.

To use the restored volume with your application, follow the steps for using the Portworx volume.

Disable the trash can

To disable the trash can feature on a cluster, set volume-expiration-minutes equal to 0:

pxctl cluster options update --volume-expiration-minutes 0