Feature blog 1.33: Image volumes graduate to beta

Signed-off-by: Sascha Grunert <[email protected]>

Author: saschagrunert

content/en/blog/_posts/2025-05-01-image-volume-beta/index.md

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+---
+layout: blog
+title: "Kubernetes 1.33: Image Volumes graduate to beta!"
+date: 2025-05-01
+draft: true
+slug: image-voume-beta
+author: Sascha Grunert (Red Hat)
+---
+
+[Image Volumes](/blog/2024/08/16/kubernetes-1-31-image-volume-source) were
+introduced as an Alpha feature with the Kubernetes v1.31 release as part of
+[KEP-4639](https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/issues/4639). The recent
+release of Kubernetes v1.33 moved that support to **beta**.
+
+Please note that the feature is still _disabled_ by default, because not all
+[container runtimes](/docs/setup/production-environment/container-runtimes) have
+full support for it. [CRI-O](https://cri-o.io) supports the initial feature since version v1.31 and
+will add support for Image Volumes as beta in v1.33.
+[containerd merged](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/10579) support
+for the alpha feature which will be part of the v2.1.0 release and is working on
+beta support as part of [PR #11578](https://github.com/containerd/containerd/pull/11578).
+
+### What's new
+
+The major change for the beta graduation of Image Volumes is the support for
+[`subPath`](/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/#using-subpath) and
+[`subPathExpr`](/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/#using-subpath-expanded-environment) mounts
+for containers via `spec.containers[*].volumeMounts.[subPath,subPathExpr]`. This
+allows end-users to mount a certain subdirectory of an image volume, which is
+still mounted as readonly (`noexec`). This means that non-existing
+subdirectories cannot be mounted by default. As for other `subPath` and
+`subPathExpr` values, Kubernetes will ensure that there are no absolute path or
+relative path components part of the specified sub path. Container runtimes are
+also required to double check those requirements for safety reasons. If a
+specified subdirectory does not exist within a volume, then runtimes should fail
+on container creation and provide user feedback by using existing kubelet
+events.
+
+Beside that, there are also three new kubelet metrics available for image volumes:
+
+- `kubelet_image_volume_requested_total`: Outlines the number of requested image volumes.
+- `kubelet_image_volume_mounted_succeed_total`: Counts the number of successful image volume mounts.
+- `kubelet_image_volume_mounted_errors_total`: Accounts the number of failed image volume mounts.
+
+To use an existing subdirectory for a specific image volume, just use it as
+[`subPath`](/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/#using-subpath) (or
+[`subPathExpr`](/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/#using-subpath-expanded-environment))
+value of the containers `volumeMounts`:
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Pod
+metadata:
+  name: image-volume
+spec:
+  containers:
+  - name: shell
+    command: ["sleep", "infinity"]
+    image: debian
+    volumeMounts:
+    - name: volume
+      mountPath: /volume
+      subPath: dir
+  volumes:
+  - name: volume
+    image:
+      reference: quay.io/crio/artifact:v1
+      pullPolicy: IfNotPresent
+```
+
+Then, create the pod on your cluster:
+
+```shell
+kubectl apply -f image-volumes-subpath.yaml
+```
+
+Now you can attach to the container:
+
+```shell
+kubectl attach -it image-volume bash
+```
+
+And check the content of the file from the `dir` sub path in the volume:
+
+```shell
+cat /volume/file
+```
+
+The output will be similar to:
+
+```none
+1
+```
+
+Thank you for reading through the end of this blog post! SIG Node is proud and
+happy to deliver this feature graduation as part of Kubernetes v1.33.
+
+As writer of this blog post, I would like to emphasize my special thanks to
+**all** involved individuals out there!
+
+If you would like to provide feedback or suggestions feel free to reach out
+to SIG Node using the [Kubernetes Slack (#sig-node)](https://kubernetes.slack.com/messages/sig-node)
+channel or the [SIG Node mailing list](https://groups.google.com/g/kubernetes-sig-node).
+
+## Further reading
+
+- [Use an Image Volume With a Pod](/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/image-volumes)
+- [`image` volume overview](/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/#image)