Step-by-Step Guide to Deploying NFS-Backed Nginx on Kubernetes

This guide walks you through deploying an NFS server, mounting its directory, and then running an Nginx deployment on a Kubernetes master node that uses the NFS share as its web root.

1. Deploy an NFS server and configure the export directory

Run the following command to verify the NFS service:

ps -ef | grep nfs

Export the NFS path:

exportfs

Typical output shows the exported paths, for example:

/nfs/data 192.168.29.0/24

/nfs/data <world>

2. Deploy Nginx on the Kubernetes master and mount the NFS share

Create a deployment manifest (save as nfs-nginx.yaml ):

apiVersion: v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: nginx-depoyment
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: nginx
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx
        volumeMounts:
        - name: www
          mountPath: /usr/share/nginx/html
        ports:
        - containerPort: 82
      volumes:
      - name: www
        nfs:
          server: nfsIP
          path: /nfs/data

Apply the manifest:

kubectl apply -f nfs-nginx.yaml

Output:

deployment.apps/nginx-depoyment created

Inspect the pod:

kubectl describe pod nginx-depoyment-697cb7b8c5-g7hm7

List all pods to verify the deployment is running:

kubectl get pods

Enter the pod’s shell and check the mounted directory:

kubectl exec -it nginx-depoyment-697cb7b8c5-g7hm7 /bin/bash

ls /usr/share/nginx/html/

You will see the files that were previously stored by a MySQL deployment, confirming the NFS mount works.

Understanding Kubernetes Persistent Storage

Kubernetes supports two main types of persistent volumes: static volumes, which are manually created and bound via PV/PVC (as demonstrated above), and dynamic volumes, which are provisioned on‑the‑fly using a StorageClass that abstracts the underlying network storage.

For further reading, see the recommended articles:

Understanding K8s MySQL 8.0 Deployment

Kubernetes Deploying Stateless Applications

K8s Autoscaling & Rollback

Simple K8s Dashboard Deployment