Kubernetes - Generate files on all the pods - kubernetes

Question

I have Java API which exports the data to an excel and generates a file on the POD where the request is served.
Now the next request (to download the file) might go to a different POD and the download fails.
How do I get around this?
How do I generate files on all the POD? Or how do I make sure the subsequent request goes to the same POD where file was generated?
I cant give the direct POD URL as it will not be accessible to clients.
Thanks.

Answer 1

You need to use a persistent volumes to share the same files between your containers. You could use the node storage mounted on containers (easiest way) or other distributed file system like NFS, EFS (AWS), GlusterFS etc...
If you you need a simplest to share the file and your pods are in the same node, you could use hostpath to store the file and share the volume with other containers.
Assuming you have a kubernetes cluster that has only one Node, and you want to share the path /mtn/data of your node with your pods:
Create a PersistentVolume:
A hostPath PersistentVolume uses a file or directory on the Node to emulate network-attached storage.
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
name: task-pv-volume
labels:
type: local
spec:
storageClassName: manual
capacity:
storage: 10Gi
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
hostPath:
path: "/mnt/data"
Create a PersistentVolumeClaim:
Pods use PersistentVolumeClaims to request physical storage
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
name: task-pv-claim
spec:
storageClassName: manual
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
resources:
requests:
storage: 3Gi
Look at the PersistentVolumeClaim:
kubectl get pvc task-pv-claim
The output shows that the PersistentVolumeClaim is bound to your PersistentVolume, task-pv-volume.
NAME STATUS VOLUME CAPACITY ACCESSMODES STORAGECLASS AGE
task-pv-claim Bound task-pv-volume 10Gi RWO manual 30s
Create a deployment with 2 replicas for example:
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: nginx
spec:
replicas: 2
selector:
matchLabels:
app: nginx
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: nginx
spec:
volumes:
- name: task-pv-storage
persistentVolumeClaim:
claimName: task-pv-claim
containers:
- name: task-pv-container
image: nginx
ports:
- containerPort: 80
name: "http-server"
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: "/mnt/data"
name: task-pv-storage
Now you can check inside both container the path /mnt/data has the same files.
If you have cluster with more than 1 node I recommend you to think about the other types of persistent volumes.
References:
Configure persistent volumes
Persistent volumes
Volume Types