Underlying storage is the physical, virtual, or cloud-backed resource that a PersistentVolume represents. The PersistentVolume is a pointer to that storage; it does not contain the stored data itself. section 10.3.3
Storage and Kubernetes objects have separate lifecycles. Deleting a pod leaves the PersistentVolumeClaim, PersistentVolume, and underlying storage unchanged. Deleting a claim can affect the volume according to its reclaim policy: dynamically provisioned volumes typically use Delete, while manually provisioned volumes typically use Retain. section 10.3.3
Reusing retained storage
After deleting a claim, a manually provisioned volume can become Released rather than Available. A new claim remains Pending because the old data may require review or removal. Deleting and recreating the PersistentVolume object removes the pointer, not the data, allowing the retained storage to become Available again. section 10.3.3
