GCP for DevOps — Filestore

Filestore

Filestore is Google Cloud’s managed NFS file storage service. It provides shared file systems that can be mounted simultaneously by multiple Compute Engine VMs and GKE pods — ideal for shared configuration, CMS content, and build caches.

Filestore Tiers

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│               Filestore Tiers                        │
├──────────────┬──────────┬──────────┬────────────────┤
│ Tier         │ Min Size │ IOPS     │ Use Case       │
├──────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ Basic HDD    │ 1 TB     │ 600 r /  │ Shared config, │
│              │          │ 1,000 w  │ low-throughput  │
├──────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ Basic SSD    │ 2.5 TB   │ 60k r /  │ General shared │
│              │          │ 25k w    │ workloads       │
├──────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ Zonal        │ 1 TB     │ Up to    │ High-perf apps │
│              │          │ 480k     │ within a zone   │
├──────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────────────┤
│ Enterprise   │ 1 TB     │ Up to    │ Mission-critical│
│ (Regional)   │          │ 120k     │ cross-zone HA   │
└──────────────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────────────┘

Create a Filestore Instance

# Create a Basic SSD Filestore instance
$ gcloud filestore instances create shared-fs \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --tier=BASIC_SSD \
    --file-share=name=vol1,capacity=2560GB \
    --network=name=default

# Describe the instance (get IP address)
$ gcloud filestore instances describe shared-fs \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --format="value(networks[0].ipAddresses[0])"

10.0.0.2

# List all instances
$ gcloud filestore instances list

Mount on Compute Engine

# Install NFS client
$ sudo apt-get install -y nfs-common

# Mount the file share
$ sudo mkdir -p /mnt/shared
$ sudo mount 10.0.0.2:/vol1 /mnt/shared

# Persist across reboots
$ echo '10.0.0.2:/vol1 /mnt/shared nfs defaults 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

# Verify mount
$ df -h /mnt/shared

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
10.0.0.2:/vol1  2.5T  0    2.5T  0%  /mnt/shared

Filestore in GKE

Use the Filestore CSI driver for ReadWriteMany access across pods.

# PersistentVolume backed by Filestore
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: shared-pv
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 2560Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  nfs:
    path: /vol1
    server: 10.0.0.2
---
# PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: shared-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  storageClassName: ""
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 2560Gi
  volumeName: shared-pv
---
# Deployment mounting the PVC
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: web-app
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: web-app
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: web-app
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: nginx
          image: nginx:alpine
          volumeMounts:
            - name: shared-data
              mountPath: /usr/share/nginx/html
      volumes:
        - name: shared-data
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: shared-pvc

Filestore Backups

# Create a backup
$ gcloud filestore backups create shared-fs-backup-1 \
    --file-share=vol1 \
    --instance=shared-fs \
    --instance-zone=us-central1-a \
    --region=us-central1

# List backups
$ gcloud filestore backups list --region=us-central1

# Restore from backup to a new instance
$ gcloud filestore instances restore shared-fs-restored \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --file-share=name=vol1 \
    --source-backup=shared-fs-backup-1 \
    --source-backup-region=us-central1

Resize Filestore

# Scale up capacity (no downtime, can only grow)
$ gcloud filestore instances update shared-fs \
    --zone=us-central1-a \
    --file-share=name=vol1,capacity=5120GB

Storage Comparison — When to Use What

Feature	Cloud Storage	Persistent Disk	Filestore
Type	Object	Block	File (NFS)
Access	API / gsutil	Single VM (RWO)	Multi-VM (RWX)
Min size	0 bytes	10 GB	1 TB
Use case	Artifacts, backups	Databases, boot	Shared files, CMS
Mount in GKE	Fuse (slow)	PVC (RWO)	PVC (RWX)
Snapshots	Versioning	Yes	Backups

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Why It’s Wrong	Fix
Using Filestore for object storage	Expensive at scale	Use Cloud Storage for artifacts/logs
Basic HDD for latency-sensitive apps	High latency, low IOPS	Use Basic SSD or Zonal tier
Not backing up Filestore	Data loss risk	Schedule regular backups
ReadWriteOnce for multi-pod access	Only one pod can write	Use Filestore for RWX
Minimum size overprovisioning	1-2.5 TB minimum is costly	Only use Filestore when NFS is needed

Quick Reference

Command	Description
gcloud filestore instances create F --tier=T	Create instance
gcloud filestore instances describe F	Get IP and details
sudo mount IP:/share /mnt/path	Mount NFS share
gcloud filestore backups create B --instance=F	Create backup
gcloud filestore instances update F --file-share=capacity=S	Resize

Next → Storage Exercises