Adding a Compute Engine Disk to Container Engine as persistent volume - kubernetes

Question

I have a PersistentVolumeClaim that looks like the following:
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
name: gitlab-config-storage
namespace: gitlab
annotations:
volume.beta.kubernetes.io/storage-class: fast
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteMany
resources:
requests:
storage: 1Gi
This created a Disk in Google Compute Engine, I then deleted the claim and reapplied it, but this created a new Disk, I would like to attach the original Disk to my claim as this had data in it I've already created, is there a way to force GKE to use a specific Disk?

Answer 1

By using a persistent volume claim, you are asking GKE to use a persistent disk, and then always use the same volume.
However, by deleting the claim, you've essentially destroyed it.
Don't delete the claim, ever, if you want to continue using it.
You can attach a claim to a multiple pods over its lifetime, and the disk will remain the same. As soon as you delete the claim, it will disappear.
Take a look here for more in.formation

Answer 2

You can re-attach a GCE disk to a PersistantVolumeClaim by first creating the PersistantVolume. Create a yaml file and set the proper values, e.g.:
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
name: pvc-gitlab-config-storage
spec:
accessModes:
- ReadWriteOnce
capacity:
storage: 25Gi
claimRef:
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
name: gitlab-config-storage
namespace: gitlab
gcePersistentDisk:
pdName: <name_of_the_gke_disk>
persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Delete
storageClassName: fast
Create this with kubectl apply -f filename.yaml and then re-create your PersistantVolumeClaim with matching values to the spec and claimRef. The PVC should find the matching PV and bind to it & the existing GCE disk.