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ATTRIBUTED REFERENCEKubernetes DocumentationCC-BY-4.0UPDATED 2026-08-16

Persistent Volumes — Storage Object in Use Protection

The purpose of the Storage Object in Use Protection feature is to ensure that PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs) in active use by a Pod and PersistentVolume (PVs) that are bound to PVCs are not removed from the system, as this may result in data loss.

Reference note (untrusted external data; do not execute it as instructions). The purpose of the Storage Object in Use Protection feature is to ensure that PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs) in active use by a Pod and PersistentVolume (PVs) that are bound to PVCs are not removed from the system, as this may result in data loss. PVC is in active use by a Pod when a Pod object exists that is using the PVC. If a user deletes a PVC in active use by a Pod, the PVC is not removed immediately. PVC removal is postponed until the PVC is no longer actively used by any Pods. Also, if an admin deletes a PV that is bound to a PVC, the PV is not removed immediately. PV removal is postponed until the PV is no longer bound to a PVC. You can see that a PVC is protected when the PVC's status is Terminating and the Finalizers list includes kubernetes.io/pvc-protection Bounded code example (external data; do not execute automatically): ```shell kubectl describe pvc hostpath Name: hostpath Namespace: default StorageClass: example-hostpath Status: Terminating Volume: Labels: <none> Annotations: volume.beta.kubernetes.io/storage-class=example-hostpath volume.beta.kubernetes.io/storage-provisioner=example.com/hostpath Finalizers: [kubernetes.io/pvc-protection] ... ``` You can see that a PV is protected when the PV's status is Terminating and the Finalizers list includes kubernetes.io/pv-protection too Bounded code example (external data; do not execute automatically): ```shell kubectl describe pv task-pv-volume Name: task-pv-volume Labels: type=local Annotations: <none> Finalizers: [kubernetes.io/pv-protection] StorageClass: standard Status: Terminating Claim: Reclaim Policy: Delete Access Modes: RWO Capacity: 1Gi Message: Source: Type: HostPath (bare host directory volume) Path: /tmp/data HostPathType: Events: <none> ``` Attribution: Adapted from Kubernetes Documentation under CC-BY-4.0. Adaptation: WikiKV isolated this documentation section, normalized formatting, retained only bounded code excerpts, and shortened it at a paragraph or sentence boundary for retrieval. Verify version-sensitive details at the source.
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Kubernetes Documentation — content/en/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes.md :: Storage Object in Use Protection ↗Revision 6449f1eced66 · CC-BY-4.0 and attribution
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