--- name: containers-storage-cos-tutorial-quota title: Setting capacity quotas for apps that use IBM Cloud Object Storage description: With IBM Cloud Object Storage, you can dynamically provision buckets for apps running in your IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service clusters. You can also dynamically set capacity quotas on those buckets during provisioning. Quotas can help you manage the resources your workloads use while also avoiding unnecessary charges. last-updated: 2026-02-20 --- > ## Documentation Index > The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/containers?format=markdown > The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt > Use these files to discover more information as needed. # Setting capacity quotas for apps that use IBM Cloud Object Storage {: #storage-cos-tutorial-quota} {: toc-content-type="tutorial"} {: toc-services="containers, cloud-object-storage"} {: toc-completion-time="45m"} [Virtual Private Cloud]{: tag-vpc} [Classic infrastructure]{: tag-classic-inf} With IBM Cloud Object Storage, you can dynamically provision buckets for apps running in your IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service clusters. You can also dynamically set capacity quotas on those buckets during provisioning. Quotas can help you manage the resources your workloads use while also avoiding unnecessary charges. {: shortdesc} ## Objectives {: #storage-cos-quota-objectives} In this tutorial, you install the Object Storage plug-in in your cluster and enable quotas for any persistent volume claims (PVC) created with the plug-in. Then, you create a PVC which dynamically creates a bucket with a quota limit in your Object Storage instance. After that, you upload a file to your bucket and deploy a simple app to your cluster that mounts the bucket and prints the contents of that file. ## Prerequisites {: #storage-cos-quota-prereqs} Before beginning this tutorial make sure that you have created or installed the following resources and tools. - An IBM Cloud account. For more information, see [Creating an account](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-account-getting-started&format=markdown). - The CLI tools including the IBM Cloud CLI, the Containers service CLI plug-in, and the Helm CLI. For more information, see [Getting started with the IBM Cloud CLI](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cli?topic=cli-getting-started&format=markdown). - An IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service cluster. If you have a VPC cluster, make sure that your VPC has a public gateway attached. For more information, see [Creating clusters](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/containers?topic=containers-clusters&format=markdown) - An Object Storage instance in the same region as your cluster. For more information, see [Provision an instance of Object Storage](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-object-storage?topic=cloud-object-storage-provision&format=markdown). ## Creating a set of service credentials {: #storage-cos-quota-credentials} {: step} 1. Follow the steps to create a set of HMAC [service credentials for your Object Storage instance](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-object-storage?topic=cloud-object-storage-getting-started-cloud-object-storage&format=markdown#gs-bucket-policy). Note that the credentials you create must have the **Manager** role to create buckets. 1. After you create a set of HMAC service credentials, review the details of your credentials and make a note of the `apikey`, `access_key_id`, and `secret_access_key`. Save these values for the next step. ## Creating a secret to store your credentials {: #storage-cos-quota-secret} {: step} 1. Create a secret by using the `apikey`, `access_key_id`, and `secret_access_key` from your service credentials. ```sh kubectl create secret generic my-cos-secret --type=ibm/ibmc-s3fs --from-literal=access-key=ACCESS-KEY --from-literal=secret-key=SECRET-KEY --from-literal=res-conf-apikey=API-KEY ``` {: pre} Example output ```sh secret/my-cos-secret created ``` {: screen} 1. Verify the secret was created. ```sh kubectl get secrets | grep my-cos ``` {: pre} Example output ```sh my-cos-secret ibm/ibmc-s3fs 3 11m ``` {: screen} ## Installing the plug-in {: #storage-cos-quota-install} {: step} When you install the plug-in in your cluster, make sure to specify the `--set quotaLimit=true` option. Specifying this option means any buckets you create with PVCs have a quota limit equal to the storage size in the PVC. {: important} 1. Follow the steps to [install the plug-in and enable quota limits](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/containers?topic=containers-storage_cos_install&format=markdown). If you've already installed the plug-in in your cluster, you can skip this step. To see if the plug-in is already installed, follow the next step. 1. Verify the plug-in is installed by listing the driver pods. ```sh kubectl get pods -n ibm-object-s3fs | grep object ``` {: pre} Example output ```sh ibmcloud-object-storage-driver-k9x4l 1/1 Running 0 6m52s ibmcloud-object-storage-driver-kj9m6 1/1 Running 0 6m52s ibmcloud-object-storage-driver-l8gqk 1/1 Running 0 6m52s ibmcloud-object-storage-plugin-576fb8bd7-sxlkb 1/1 Running 0 6m52s ``` {: screen} ## Dynamically provisioning a bucket with a quota {: #storage-cos-quota-create-bucket} {: step} You can use dynamic provisioning to automatically create a Object Storage bucket when you a create a PVC. 1. Copy the following PVC configuration and save it to a file called `pvc.yaml`. This example PVC automatically creates a bucket with a quota equal to `20Gi`. ```yaml kind: PersistentVolumeClaim apiVersion: v1 metadata: name: my-cos-pvc namespace: default annotations: ibm.io/auto-create-bucket: "true" ibm.io/auto-delete-bucket: "true" ibm.io/secret-name: "my-cos-secret" ibm.io/quota-limit: "true" spec: accessModes: - ReadWriteOnce resources: requests: storage: 20Gi storageClassName: ibmc-s3fs-standard-cross-region ``` {: codeblock} 1. Create the PVC in your cluster. ```sh kubectl apply -f pvc.yaml ``` Example output ```sh persistentvolumeclaim/my-cos-pvc created ``` {: screen} 1. List your PVCs and verify the `my-cos-pvc` is in the `Bound` state. ```sh NAME STATUS VOLUME CAPACITY ACCESS MODES STORAGECLASS AGE my-cos-pvc Bound pvc-64a4e0c9-b5ec-40e3-8b7e-77ff47ae6c5e 20Gi RWO ibmc-s3fs-standard-cross-region 6s ``` {: screen} 1. [Navigate to your Object Storage instance in the console](https://cloud.ibm.com/objectstorage) and click the **Buckets** tab. 1. Review the details of the automatically created bucket. The bucket name is in the format `tmp-s3fs-XXXX`. 1. Click the `tmp-s3fs-XXXX` bucket, then click the **Configuration** tab. 1. On the **Configuration** page, look for the **Quota enforcement** section. Note that the bucket was automatically created with a quota equal to the size you specified in the PVC. In this example, the value was `20Gi`. ## Uploading a file to your bucket {: #storage-cos-quota-create-file} {: step} 1. Save the following Pod configuration to a file called `pod.yaml`. ```yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: cat-test-file spec: containers: - name: app image: nginx volumeMounts: - name: my-vol mountPath: "/mnt" command: ["/bin/sh"] args: ["-c", "cat mnt/pod.yaml && sleep 5 && exit"] volumes: - name: my-vol persistentVolumeClaim: claimName: my-cos-pvc ``` {: codeblock} 1. [Navigate to your Object Storage instance in the console](https://cloud.ibm.com/objectstorage) and click the **Buckets** tab. 1. Click the `tmp-s3fs-XXXX` bucket, then click **Upload**. 1. Upload the `pod.yaml` file that you saved earlier. ## Creating an app that mounts the bucket {: #storage-cos-quota-create-app} {: step} 1. Copy the following Pod configuration and save it to a file called `pod.yaml`. This example pod mounts the bucket that was created by the `my-cos-pvc` PVC and prints the contents of the `pod.yaml` file you uploaded earlier. ```yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: cat-test-file spec: containers: - name: app image: nginx volumeMounts: - name: my-vol mountPath: "/mnt" command: ["/bin/sh"] args: ["-c", "cat mnt/pod.yaml && sleep 5 && exit"] volumes: - name: my-vol persistentVolumeClaim: claimName: my-cos-pvc ``` {: codeblock} 1. Create the pod in your cluster. ```sh oc apply -f pod.yaml ``` {: pre} Example output ```sh pod/cat-test-file created ``` {: screen} 1. Get the logs of the `cat-test-file` pod. In this example, the logs contain the printed contents of the `pod.yaml` file you uploaded earlier. ```yaml apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: cat-test-file spec: containers: - name: app image: nginx volumeMounts: - name: my-vol mountPath: "/mnt" command: ["/bin/sh"] args: ["-c", "cat mnt/pod.yaml && sleep 5 && exit"] volumes: - name: my-vol persistentVolumeClaim: claimName: my-cos-pvc ``` {: screen} ## Review {: #storage-cos-quota-review} In this tutorial, you installed the Object Storage plug-in in your cluster and enabled quotas for any PVCs created with the plug-in. Then, you created a PVC which dynamically created a bucket with a quota limit in your Object Storage instance. After that, you deployed a simple app that prints the contents of a file in your bucket. ## Next steps {: #storage-cos-quota-next} - Set up the [Object Storage CLI](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-object-storage?topic=cloud-object-storage-ic-cos-cli&format=markdown) to point to your bucket. - Use the Object Storage SDKs to [add storage to your apps](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/cloud-object-storage?topic=cloud-object-storage-sdk-gs&format=markdown).