CKA Storage Practice Question
A pod is using a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) named 'mypvc' which is bound to a PersistentVolume (PV) with reclaim policy 'Retain'. The pod is deleted and then the PVC is deleted. What happens to the PV?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse the 'Retain' policy with automatic recycling or deletion, assuming the PV will be cleaned up or rebound, when in fact it remains in a 'Released' state requiring manual administrator action.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The PV remains but is in 'Released' state.
When a PVC is deleted, the associated PV with a 'Retain' reclaim policy is not automatically deleted or recycled. Instead, the PV transitions to a 'Released' state, indicating that its data is preserved but it is no longer bound to a PVC. The PV remains in the cluster until an administrator manually reclaims it by removing the claimRef or deleting the PV.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The PV remains but is in 'Released' state.
Why this is correct
When a PVC bound to a PV with a Retain reclaim policy is deleted, the PV is preserved to prevent data loss. Its status transitions to Released, indicating that the claim has been deleted but the volume still contains data and requires manual intervention by an administrator to be reclaimed or reused.
- ✗
The PV is automatically deleted.
Why it's wrong here
Automatic deletion of both the Kubernetes PV object and the associated physical storage asset only occurs if the PV's reclaim policy is explicitly set to Delete. Because the policy here is Retain, Kubernetes guarantees that the external storage resource and the PV object itself are kept intact.
- ✗
The PV is immediately bound to another PVC.
Why it's wrong here
A PV in the Released state cannot be immediately bound to another PVC because it still contains data from the previous claim. To make this PV available for binding again, a cluster administrator must manually recreate the PV or clean up the underlying storage and reset the claim reference.
- ✗
The PV is recycled for reuse.
Why it's wrong here
Under the Retain reclaim policy, Kubernetes does not perform any automated scrubbing or recycling of the underlying storage. The Recycle reclaim policy, which performs a basic volume scrubbing (equivalent to rm -rf), is deprecated and is not triggered when a volume is configured with Retain.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Key term
Persistent Volumes
A Persistent Volume is a piece of storage in a Kubernetes cluster that has been provisioned by an administrator and exists independently of any single pod that uses it.
Key term
Storage Classes
A Storage Class in Kubernetes is a template that defines how persistent storage is provisioned automatically, including the type of storage, performance characteristics, and provisioning policies.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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