# Change the Reclaim Policy of a PersistentVolume

Change the Reclaim Policy of a PersistentVolumeThis page shows how to change the reclaim policy of a Kubernetes PersistentVolume.Before you beginYou need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. It is recommended to run this tutorial on a cluster with at least two nodes that are not acting as control plane hosts. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using minikube or you can use one of these Kubernetes playgrounds:iximiuz LabsKillercodaKodeKloudPlay with KubernetesTo check the version, enter kubectl version.Why change reclaim policy of a PersistentVolumePersistentVolumes can have various reclaim policies, including "Retain", "Recycle", and "Delete". For dynamically provisioned PersistentVolumes, the default reclaim policy is "Delete". This means that a dynamically provisioned volume is automatically deleted when a user deletes the corresponding PersistentVolumeClaim. This automatic behavior might be inappropriate if the volume contains precious data. In that case, it is more appropriate to use the "Retain" policy. With the "Retain" policy, if a user deletes a PersistentVolumeClaim, the corresponding PersistentVolume will not be deleted. Instead, it is moved to the Released phase, where all of its data can be manually recovered.Changing the reclaim policy of a PersistentVolumeList the PersistentVolumes in your cluster:kubectl get pv The output is similar to this:NAME CAPACITY ACCESSMODES RECLAIMPOLICY STATUS CLAIM STORAGECLASS REASON AGE pvc-b6efd8da-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94 4Gi RWO Delete Bound default/claim1 manual 10s pvc-b95650f8-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94 4Gi RWO Delete Bound default/claim2 manual 6s pvc-bb3ca71d-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94 4Gi RWO Delete Bound default/claim3 manual 3s This list also includes the name of the claims that are bound to each volume for easier identification of dynamically provisioned volumes.Choose one of your PersistentVolumes and change its reclaim policy:kubectl patch pv <your-pv-name> -p '{"spec":{"persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy":"Retain"}}' where <your-pv-name> is the name of your chosen PersistentVolume.Note:On Windows, you must double quote any JSONPath template that contains spaces (not single quote as shown above for bash). This in turn means that you must use a single quote or escaped double quote around any literals in the template. For example:kubectl patch pv <your-pv-name> -p "{\"spec\":{\"persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy\":\"Retain\"}}" Verify that your chosen PersistentVolume has the right policy:kubectl get pv The output is similar to this:NAME CAPACITY ACCESSMODES RECLAIMPOLICY STATUS CLAIM STORAGECLASS REASON AGE pvc-b6efd8da-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94 4Gi RWO Delete Bound default/claim1 manual 40s pvc-b95650f8-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94 4Gi RWO Delete Bound default/claim2 manual 36s pvc-bb3ca71d-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94 4Gi RWO Retain Bound default/claim3 manual 33s In the preceding output, you can see that the volume bound to claim default/claim3 has reclaim policy Retain. It will not be automatically deleted when a user deletes claim default/claim3.What's nextLearn more about PersistentVolumes.Learn more about PersistentVolumeClaims.ReferencesPersistentVolumePay attention to the .spec.persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy field of PersistentVolume.PersistentVolumeClaim