Docker: Persistent Storage Using Volumes

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 18:55:00 +0530

What are Docker Volumes?

Docker volumes are a mechanism for persisting data independently of the container lifecycle. Since, the data in a container will be deleted once the container is stopped, using Docker volumes ensures the data is stored permenently.

Volumes are managed by Docker and stored on the host (mostly under /var/lib/docker/volumes).
Most importantly, it allows the data to be stored, retained and shared between container, suriving container restarts and removals.
It preferrable to use for stateful applications like databases or file servers where data persistence matters.

Creating and Using Volumes

Volumes can be created implicitly by Docker when referenced or explicitly using:
```
docker volume create <volume_name>
```

Start a container and mount a volume:

docker run -it -v <volume_name>:/path/in/container <image:tag>

Files written/modified inside the container at the mount point path persist on the volume.
When a new container mounts the same volume, it can process the previously stored data.
Volumes can be mounted read-write (default) or read-only with :ro option:

docker run -it -v <volume_name>:/container/path/:ro <image:tag>

Inspecting and Managing Volumes

List volumes:
```
docker volume ls
```
Inspect a volume for details like mount point:
```
docker volume inspect <volume_name>
```
Remove a Volume(only when inactive/not being by any containers)
```
docker volume rm <volume_name>
```

Thoughts

If you read this posts about Bind Mounts, using Volumes over Bind Mount is a benefit because:

Docker: Using Bind Mounts (Volume Mount)

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 14:50:04 +0530

A short guide on mounting a local directory inside a container.

Docker: Build Multi-Architecture Container Images

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 22:56:12 +0530

A short guide to building and running container images for multiple architectures with instruction emulation.

Docker on Documentation