A common way to create a Docker volume is to use the docker volume create command and specify the volume name. The steps include: 1. Create a named volume using docker volume create my-volume; 2. Mount the volume to the container through docker run -v my-volume:/path/in/container; 3. Verify the volume using docker volume ls and clean useless volumes with docker volume prune. In addition, anonymous volume or binding mount can be selected. The former automatically generates an ID by Docker, and the latter maps the host directory directly to the container. Note that the volume is only valid locally, and external storage schemes are required across nodes. During testing, you can use the Alpine container to check the volume content.

Creating a Docker volume is straightforward, and it's one of the most common ways to persist data when working with containers. The main idea is to set up a directory that exists outside the container's filesystem so data survives even after the container stops or gets removed.

Basic Command: docker volume create

The simplest way to create a Docker volume is by using the docker volume create command. You just need to give your volume a name:

 docker volume create my-volume

That's it — you now have a named volume called my-volume . This volume can be mounted into one or more containers later.

You won't see much output unless something goes wrong, but you can verify the volume was created with:

 docker volume ls

This lists all volumes currently available on your system.

Mounting a Volume When Running a Container

Creating the volume is only half the job — you'll want to use it in a container. To do that, use the -v flag when running a container:

 docker run -d \
  --name my-container \
  -v my-volume:/path/in/container \
  my-image

Here:

• -v my-volume:/path/in/container tells Docker to mount the volume my-volume to a specific path inside the container.
• /path/in/container depends on what your app expects — for example, if you're running a web server, this might be /usr/share/nginx/html .

Once mounted, any data written to that directory inside the container will be stored in the volume and preserved across container restarts or replacements.

Types of Volumes You Can Use

Docker supports a few types of volumes, and it's helpful to know which one fits your use case:

• Named volumes – like we used earlier ( my-volume ). These are managed by Docker and are great for databases, config files, etc.
• Anonymous volumes – when you don't specify a name, Docker gives it a random ID. Useful for temporary storage.
• Bind mounts – instead of letting Docker manage the storage, you map a specific host directory directly into the container (eg, -v /your/host/dir:/container/path ).

If you're not sure which to pick:

• Use named volumes for most services where persistence matters.
• Use bind mounts when you need direct access to your host's files, like during development.

Some Gotchas and Tips

There are a few small things that often trip people up:

• If you try to mount a volume that doesn't exist when running a container, Docker will automatically create an anonymous volume — not always what you want.
• Volumes are local to the Docker host. If you're using Docker Swarm or Kubernetes, you'll need external storage solutions for multi-node setups.
• Cleaning up unused volumes is easy with:

   docker volume prune

Also, if you're testing and want to make sure your volume works, you can spin up a quick Alpine container to inspect its contents:

 docker run -it --rm -v my-volume:/test alpine sh
ls /test

That should show you what's actually inside the volume.

Basically that's it.

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