If you are not familiar with the oc command, refer to OpenShift - Getting Started with the oc command.

If you are not familiar with Volume Snapshots, check out my article OpenShift - Getting Started with Volume Snapshots.

This assumes you have already Created a Volume Snapshot.

Let's say you have a pod that has a Persistent Volume Claim mounted. For more details on mounting a Persistent Volume Claim in a container, check out my article OpenShift - Mount a Persistent Volume Claim in a container. For example, perhaps my-deployment has Persistent Volume Claim my-pvc mounted to /var/data in my-container.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-deployment
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: my-container
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /var/data
          name: my-volume
      volumes:
      - name: my-volume
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: my-pvc

You can also see this in the OpenShift console at Workloads > Pods > your pod.

And let's say there is a file named foo.txt at /var/data that contains Hello World.

~]$ oc exec pod/ose-hello-openshift-rhel8-69f4d74fbc-k5r4p --namespace my-project -- ls -l /var/data

-rw-r--r--. 1 1001060000 1001060000    12 Apr 29 01:30 foo.txt

~]$ oc exec pod/ose-hello-openshift-rhel8-69f4d74fbc-k5r4p --namespace my-project -- cat /var/data/foo.txt
Hello World

You can also see this in the OpenShift console at Workloads > Pods > your pod > Terminal.

Volume Snapshot

And let's say you created a Volume Snapshot of Persistent Volume Claim my-pvc. The oc get volumesnaphot command can then be used to list the Volume Snapshots that have been taken. It is important to recognize that the Volume Snapshot does not actually contain the content of the volume. Instead, the Volume Snapshot Content (more on this in a moment) contains the actual content of the volume. The Volume Snapshot is like the parent resource that ultimately attempts to create the Volume Snapshot Content.

]$ oc get volumesnapshots --namespace my-project
NAME                 READYTOUSE   SOURCEPVC   SOURCESNAPSHOTCONTENT   RESTORESIZE   SNAPSHOTCLASS     SNAPSHOTCONTENT                                    CREATIONTIME   AGE
my-volume-snapshot   true         my-pvc                              1Gi           csi-vsphere-vsc   snapcontent-ee26485f-499e-42db-85d4-d4b6f6d7b9bc   3m14s          11m

Or in the OpenShift console, at Storage > VolumeSnapshots.

Volume Snapshot Content

You can then view the YAML of the volume snapshot and something like this should be returned. Notice in this example that the status shows the volume snapshot has been taken and there is a Volume Snapshot Content. Nice.

]$ oc get volumesnapshot my-volume-snapshot --namespace m-project --output yaml
apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: VolumeSnapshot
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: "2025-04-25T01:22:11Z"
  finalizers:
  - snapshot.storage.kubernetes.io/volumesnapshot-as-source-protection
  - snapshot.storage.kubernetes.io/volumesnapshot-bound-protection
  generation: 1
  name: my-pvc-volume-snapshot
  namespace: my-project
  resourceVersion: "505318001"
  uid: ee26485f-499e-42db-85d4-d4b6f6d7b9bc
spec:
  source:
    persistentVolumeClaimName: my-pvc
  volumeSnapshotClassName: csi-vsphere-vsc
status:
  boundVolumeSnapshotContentName: snapcontent-ee26485f-499e-42db-85d4-d4b6f6d7b9bc
  creationTime: "2025-04-25T01:29:59Z"
  readyToUse: true
  restoreSize: 1Gi

Or, in the OpenShift console, Storage > VolumeSnapshots if you select the Volume Snapshot and you see VolumeSnapshotContent then a snapshot of the volume has been taken.

The oc get VolumeSnapshotContent command can be used to list the Volume Snapshot Contents that have been taken.

]$ oc get volumesnapshotcontent --namespace my-project
NAME                                               READYTOUSE   RESTORESIZE   DELETIONPOLICY   DRIVER                   VOLUMESNAPSHOTCLASS   VOLUMESNAPSHOT       VOLUMESNAPSHOTNAMESPACE   AGE
snapcontent-d1e3b556-fb07-40b9-b032-976c9b5a84d7   true         1073741824    Delete           csi.vsphere.vmware.com   csi-vsphere-vsc       my-volume-snapshot   my-project                7m45s

Or in the OpenShift console at Storage > VolumeSnapshotContents.

Now let's make some change to the content in Persistent Volume my-pv. For example, let's overwrite foo.txt to have "Goodbye World" instead of "Hello World".

~]$ oc exec pod/ose-hello-openshift-rhel8-69f4d74fbc-k5r4p -it --namespace my-project -- /bin/bash
bash-4.4$ echo "Goodbye World" > /var/data/foo.txt
bash-4.4$ exit

~]$ oc exec pod/ose-hello-openshift-rhel8-69f4d74fbc-k5r4p --namespace my-project -- cat /var/data/foo.txt
Goodbye World

This can also be done in the OpenShift console at Workloads > Pods > your pod > Terminal.

Now foo.txt in the Volume Snapshot Content should have "Hello World" since the snapshot was taken before foo.txt was overwritten to have "Goodbye World" and foo.txt in Persistent Volume my-pv has "Goodbye World".

Restore Volume Snapshot Content

Let's create a new Persistent Volume Claim from the snapshot. For example, let's say you have the following in a YAML file. In this example, the Persistent Volume Claim will be created from the Volume Snapshot named my-volume-snapshot.

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: my-pvc-restore
  namespace: my-project
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteOnce
  dataSource:
    name: my-volume-snapshot
    kind: VolumeSnapshot
    apiGroup: snapshot.storage.k8s.io
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
  storageClassName: thin-csi
  volumeMode: Filesystem

The oc apply command can be used to create the Persistent Volume Claim from the Volume Snapshot.

]$ oc apply --filename my-pvc-restore.yml
persistentvolumeclaim/my-pvc-restore created

Or this can be done in the OpenShift console at Storage > VolumeSnapshots > your volume snapshot > Restore as new PVC.

The oc get PersistentVolumeClaims command can be used to list the Persistent Volume Claims. Notice in this example that the Persistent Volume Claim status is Pending. This means that the TBD is WaitForFirstConsumer instead of Immediate.

]$ oc get PersistentVolumeClaims --namespace my-project
NAME             STATUS    VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   VOLUMEATTRIBUTESCLASS   AGE
my-pvc           Bound     pvc-819117a8-1a79-4be6-b9e7-620845979db6   1Gi        RWO            thin-csi       <unset>                 4d
my-pvc-restore   Pending                                                                        thin-csi       <unset>                 59s

Or in the OpenShift console at Storage > PersistentVolumeClaims.

In this example, describing the Persistent Volume Claim shows that the Persistent Volume Claim is Pending because it's waiting for the first consumer.

]$ oc describe PersistentVolumeClaim my-pvc-restore --namespace my-project
Name:          my-pvc-restore
Namespace:     my-project
StorageClass:  thin-csi
Status:        Pending
Volume:
Labels:        <none>
Annotations:   <none>
Finalizers:    [kubernetes.io/pvc-protection]
Capacity:
Access Modes:
VolumeMode:    Filesystem
DataSource:
  APIGroup:  snapshot.storage.k8s.io
  Kind:      VolumeSnapshot
  Name:      my-volume-snapshot
Used By:     <none>
Events:
  Type    Reason                Age               From                         Message
  ----    ------                ----              ----                         -------
  Normal  WaitForFirstConsumer  7s (x6 over 77s)  persistentvolume-controller  waiting for first consumer to be created before binding

Let's update our Deployment to mount the Persistent Volume Claim in my-container.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-deployment
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: my-container
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /var/data
          name: my-volume
        - mountPath: /var/restore
          name: my-volume-restore        
      volumes:
      - name: my-volume
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: my-pvc
      - name: my-volume-restore
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: my-pvc-restore

And now the Persistent Volume Claim should be Bound instead of Pending.

]$ oc get PersistentVolumeClaims --namespace my-project
NAME             STATUS   VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   VOLUMEATTRIBUTESCLASS   AGE
my-pvc           Bound    pvc-819117a8-1a79-4be6-b9e7-620845979db6   1Gi        RWO            thin-csi       <unset>                 4d
my-pvc-restore   Bound    pvc-2af62b4a-aab6-4e35-922b-8ce73d84c5f4   1Gi        RWO            thin-csi       <unset>                 10m

Describing the Persistent Volume Claim should return additional events showing the Persistent Volume Claim was bound.

]$ oc describe PersistentVolumeClaim my-pvc-restore --namespace my-project
Name:          my-pvc-restore
Namespace:     my-project
StorageClass:  thin-csi
Status:        Bound
Volume:        pvc-2af62b4a-aab6-4e35-922b-8ce73d84c5f4
Labels:        <none>
Annotations:   pv.kubernetes.io/bind-completed: yes
               pv.kubernetes.io/bound-by-controller: yes
               volume.beta.kubernetes.io/storage-provisioner: csi.vsphere.vmware.com
               volume.kubernetes.io/selected-node: lab001-worker-jttdr
               volume.kubernetes.io/storage-provisioner: csi.vsphere.vmware.com
Finalizers:    [kubernetes.io/pvc-protection]
Capacity:      1Gi
Access Modes:  RWO
VolumeMode:    Filesystem
DataSource:
  APIGroup:  snapshot.storage.k8s.io
  Kind:      VolumeSnapshot
  Name:      my-volume-snapshot
Used By:     ose-hello-openshift-rhel8-6dbcf6858b-hrp26
Events:
  Type    Reason                 Age                   From                                                                                                               Message
  ----    ------                 ----                  ----                                                                                                               -------
  Normal  WaitForFirstConsumer   4m51s (x26 over 10m)  persistentvolume-controller                                                                                        waiting for first consumer to be created before binding
  Normal  Provisioning           67s                   csi.vsphere.vmware.com_vmware-vsphere-csi-driver-controller-5b4755745d-r29xs_f59b2dd4-0540-48e7-9e8a-4b3725a8d979  External provisioner is provisioning volume for claim "my-project/my-pvc-restore"
  Normal  ProvisioningSucceeded  66s                   csi.vsphere.vmware.com_vmware-vsphere-csi-driver-controller-5b4755745d-r29xs_f59b2dd4-0540-48e7-9e8a-4b3725a8d979  Successfully provisioned volume pvc-2af62b4a-aab6-4e35-922b-8ce73d84c5f4

And foo.txt from the restored Persistent Volume Claim should have "Hello World". Awesome!

~]$ oc exec pod/ose-hello-openshift-rhel8-69f4d74fbc-k5r4p --namespace my-project -- cat /var/data/foo.txt
Goodbye World

~]$ oc exec pod/ose-hello-openshift-rhel8-69f4d74fbc-k5r4p --namespace my-project -- cat /var/restore/foo.txt
Hello World