moby/docs/sources/use/working_with_volumes.md

page_title: Share Directories via Volumes page_description: How to create and share volumes page_keywords: Examples, Usage, volume, docker, documentation, examples

Share Directories via Volumes

Introduction

A data volume is a specially-designated directory within one or more containers that bypasses the Union File System to provide several useful features for persistent or shared data:

• Data volumes can be shared and reused between containers:
  This is the feature that makes data volumes so powerful. You can use it for anything from hot database upgrades to custom backup or replication tools. See the example below.
• Changes to a data volume are made directly:
  Without the overhead of a copy-on-write mechanism. This is good for very large files.
• Changes to a data volume will not be included at the next commit:
  Because they are not recorded as regular filesystem changes in the top layer of the Union File System
• Volumes persist until no containers use them:
  As they are a reference counted resource. The container does not need to be running to share its volumes, but running it can help protect it against accidental removal via docker rm.

Each container can have zero or more data volumes.

Getting Started

Using data volumes is as simple as adding a -v parameter to the docker run command. The -v parameter can be used more than once in order to create more volumes within the new container. To create a new container with two new volumes:

$ docker run -v /var/volume1 -v /var/volume2 busybox true

This command will create the new container with two new volumes that exits instantly (true is pretty much the smallest, simplest program that you can run). You can then mount its volumes in any other container using the run --volumes-from option; irrespective of whether the volume container is running or not.

Or, you can use the VOLUME instruction in a Dockerfile to add one or more new volumes to any container created from that image:

# BUILD-USING:        $ docker build -t data .
# RUN-USING:          $ docker run -name DATA data
FROM          busybox
VOLUME        ["/var/volume1", "/var/volume2"]
CMD           ["/bin/true"]

Creating and mounting a Data Volume Container

If you have some persistent data that you want to share between containers, or want to use from non-persistent containers, it's best to create a named Data Volume Container, and then to mount the data from it.

Create a named container with volumes to share (/var/volume1 and /var/volume2):

$ docker run -v /var/volume1 -v /var/volume2 -name DATA busybox true

Then mount those data volumes into your application containers:

$ docker run -t -i -rm -volumes-from DATA -name client1 ubuntu bash

You can use multiple -volumes-from parameters to bring together multiple data volumes from multiple containers.

Interestingly, you can mount the volumes that came from the DATA container in yet another container via the client1 middleman container:

$ docker run -t -i -rm -volumes-from client1 -name client2 ubuntu bash

This allows you to abstract the actual data source from users of that data, similar to Ambassador Pattern Linking.

If you remove containers that mount volumes, including the initial DATA container, or the middleman, the volumes will not be deleted until there are no containers still referencing those volumes. This allows you to upgrade, or effectively migrate data volumes between containers.

Mount a Host Directory as a Container Volume:

-v=[]: Create a bind mount with: [host-dir]:[container-dir]:[rw|ro].

You must specify an absolute path for host-dir. If host-dir is missing from the command, then Docker creates a new volume. If host-dir is present but points to a non-existent directory on the host, Docker will automatically create this directory and use it as the source of the bind-mount.

Note that this is not available from a Dockerfile due the portability and sharing purpose of it. The host-dir volumes are entirely host-dependent and might not work on any other machine.

For example:

# Usage:
# sudo docker run [OPTIONS] -v /(dir. on host):/(dir. in container):(Read-Write or Read-Only) [ARG..]
# Example:
$ sudo docker run -i -t -v /var/log:/logs_from_host:ro ubuntu bash

The command above mounts the host directory /var/log into the container with read only permissions as /logs_from_host.

New in version v0.5.0.

Note for OS/X users and remote daemon users:

OS/X users run boot2docker to create a minimalist virtual machine running the docker daemon. That virtual machine then launches docker commands on behalf of the OS/X command line. The means that host directories refer to directories in the boot2docker virtual machine, not the OS/X filesystem.

Similarly, anytime when the docker daemon is on a remote machine, the host directories always refer to directories on the daemon's machine.

Backup, restore, or migrate data volumes

You cannot back up volumes using docker export, docker save and docker cp because they are external to images. Instead you can use --volumes-from to start a new container that can access the data-container's volume. For example:

$ sudo docker run -rm --volumes-from DATA -v $(pwd):/backup busybox tar cvf /backup/backup.tar /data

• -rm:
  remove the container when it exits
• --volumes-from DATA:
  attach to the volumes shared by the DATA container
• -v $(pwd):/backup:
  bind mount the current directory into the container; to write the tar file to
• busybox: a small simpler image - good for quick maintenance
• tar cvf /backup/backup.tar /data:
  creates an uncompressed tar file of all the files in the /data directory

Then to restore to the same container, or another that you've made elsewhere:

# create a new data container
$ sudo docker run -v /data -name DATA2 busybox true
# untar the backup files into the new container᾿s data volume
$ sudo docker run -rm --volumes-from DATA2 -v $(pwd):/backup busybox tar xvf /backup/backup.tar
data/
data/sven.txt
# compare to the original container
$ sudo docker run -rm --volumes-from DATA -v `pwd`:/backup busybox ls /data
sven.txt

You can use the basic techniques above to automate backup, migration and restore testing using your preferred tools.

Known Issues

• Issue 2702: "lxc-start: Permission denied - failed to mount" could indicate a permissions problem with AppArmor. Please see the issue for a workaround.
• Issue 2528: the busybox container is used to make the resulting container as small and simple as possible - whenever you need to interact with the data in the volume you mount it into another container.