Kubernetes allows you to mount block storage volumes for storing files. But each volume can only be mounted to a single server instance (pod). So if you want multiple pods to access your volume, you need to configure and deploy an NFS service. In which world is this simple, convenient, or straightforward?
If you're running your software on multiple VPS's you still need an NFS.
The only moment you don't need an NFS is when you have 2 processes running on the same machine touching the same folder.
You’re totally right! Maybe I could have chosen a better example. The point I was trying to make: If you’re building a PaaS – why not make it easy to do something as basic as attaching storage? The answer is probably: Just use S3 or something like that. But meh, that’s just more special APIs and vendor lock-in.
I think because setting up NFS and attaching it is still way more difficult to support than just allowing an app to make HTTPS calls to S3 to manage its storage.
It also dramatically increases the flexibility THEY have in their underling infrastructure to scale up, down, and move your instances around.
When you interact with an NFS your code may have certain expectations of timeouts etc because you're using the filesystem API.
Distributed storage that is fast and reliable can feel like magic. But it's not something that software alone can solve. It's a coordination of capable hardware and purpose built software. The fact that Kubernetes cleanly decouples this instead of abstracting it away or ignoring the use case is a good thing.
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If you're running your software on multiple VPS's you still need an NFS.
The only moment you don't need an NFS is when you have 2 processes running on the same machine touching the same folder.
You’re totally right! Maybe I could have chosen a better example. The point I was trying to make: If you’re building a PaaS – why not make it easy to do something as basic as attaching storage? The answer is probably: Just use S3 or something like that. But meh, that’s just more special APIs and vendor lock-in.
I think because setting up NFS and attaching it is still way more difficult to support than just allowing an app to make HTTPS calls to S3 to manage its storage.
It also dramatically increases the flexibility THEY have in their underling infrastructure to scale up, down, and move your instances around.
When you interact with an NFS your code may have certain expectations of timeouts etc because you're using the filesystem API.
Distributed storage that is fast and reliable can feel like magic. But it's not something that software alone can solve. It's a coordination of capable hardware and purpose built software. The fact that Kubernetes cleanly decouples this instead of abstracting it away or ignoring the use case is a good thing.