Data volumes

Data volumes are one type of workload assets. Data volumes offer a powerful solution for storing, managing, and sharing AI training data within the NVIDIA Run:ai platform. They promote collaboration, simplify data access control, and streamline the AI development lifecycle.

Data volumes are snapshots of datasets stored in Kubernetes Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs) and act as a central repository for training data.

Data volumes can be created and shared within your organization. Once created, a data volume is available to the originating project, can be shared with additional scopes and can be easily used by AI practitioners while submitting workloads.

Note

Data volumes are disabled, by default. If you cannot see Data volumes, then it must be enabled by your Administrator, under General settings → Workloads → Data volumes.

Why use a data volume?

1. Sharing with multiple scopes - Data volumes can be shared across different scopes in a cluster, including projects, departments. Using data volumes allows for data reuse and collaboration within the organization.

2. Storage saving - A single copy of the data can be used across multiple scopes

Typical use cases

1. Sharing large datasets - In large organizations, the data is often stored in a remote location, which can be a barrier for large model training. Even if the data is transferred into the cluster, sharing it easily with multiple users is still challenging. Data volumes can help share the data seamlessly, with maximum security and control.

2. Sharing data with colleagues - When sharing training results, generated datasets, or other artifacts with team members is needed, data volumes can help make the data available easily.

Prerequisites

To create a data volume, you must have a PVC data source already created. Make sure the PVC includes data before sharing it.

Data volumes table

The data volumes table can be found under Workload manager in the NVIDIA Run:ai platform.

The data volumes table provides a list of all the data volumes defined in the platform and allows you to manage them.

The data volumes table comprises the following columns:

Column	Description
Data volume	The name of the data volume
Description	A description of the data volume
Status	The different lifecycle phases and representation of the data volume condition
Scope	The scope of the data source within the organizational tree. Click the scope name to view the organizational tree diagram
Origin project	The project of the origin PVC
Origin PVC	The original PVC from which the data volume was created that points to the same PV
Cluster	The cluster that the data volume is associated with
Created by	The user who created the data volume
Creation time	The timestamp for when the data volume was created
Last updated	The timestamp of when the data volume was last updated

Data volumes status

The following table describes the data volumes' condition and whether they were created successfully for the selected scope.

Status	Description
No issues found	No issues were found while creating the data volume
Issues found	Issues were found while sharing the data volume. Contact NVIDIA Run:ai support.
Creating…	The data volume is being created
Deleting...	The data volume is being deleted
No status / “-”	When the data volume’s scope is an account, the current version of the cluster is not up to date, or the asset is not a cluster-syncing entity, the status can’t be displayed

Customizing the table view

• Filter - Click ADD FILTER, select the column to filter by, and enter the filter values

• Search - Click SEARCH and type the value to search by

• Sort - Click each column header to sort by

• Column selection - Click COLUMNS and select the columns to display in the table

• Refresh - Click REFRESH to update the table with the latest data

Adding a new data volume

To create a new data volume:

1. Click +NEW DATA VOLUME

2. Enter a name for the data volume. The name must be unique.

3. Optional: Provide a description of the data volume

4. Set the project where the data is located

5. Set a PVC from which to create the data volume

6. Set the Scopes that will be able to mount the data volume

7. Click CREATE DATA VOLUME

Editing a data volume

To edit a data volume:

1. Select the data volume you want to edit

2. Click Edit

3. Click SAVE DATA VOLUME

Copying a data volume

To copy an existing data volume:

1. Select the data volume you want to copy

2. Click MAKE A COPY

3. Enter a name for the data volume. The name must be unique.

4. Set a new Origin PVC for your data volume, since only one Origin PVC can be used per data volume

5. Click CREATE DATA VOLUME

Deleting a data volume

To delete a data volume:

1. Select the data volume you want to delete

2. Click DELETE

3. Confirm you want to delete the data volume

Note

It is not possible to delete a data volume being used by an existing workload.

Using API

To view the available actions, go to the Data volumes API reference.