# Set pod writable layer size

**URL:** <https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/set-pod-writable-layer-size/17196>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Created:** [August 24, 2021, 5:46pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/set-pod-writable-layer-size/17196 "2021-08-24T17:46:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mvienne-o](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/mvienne-o/32/8441_2.png) [@mvienne-o](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/mvienne-o)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2021, 5:46pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/set-pod-writable-layer-size/17196/1 "2021-08-24T17:46:26Z")

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Hello,

I want to increase the default size of a pod’s writable layer in order to store a large database dump (~15-20G) before exporting it to an S3 bucket, and then deleting it on the pod.

I use docker with the `devicemapper` storage driver, and `dm.basesize=10G` in `/etc/docker/daemon.json`, so the writable layer is 10G by default. I don’t want to change `dm.basesize`, because I don’t want to increase the space available for other pods.

I don’t think an `emptyDir` would be appropriate for this use-case, because it would take up space in the filesystem holding the kubelet root dir (if medium is not `memory`), and this filesystem is only 10G in my case.

Is there a way to do this, or do I need to use a persistent volume even if I don’t need to persist the data and it will be empty most of the time?

### Cluster information:

Kubernetes version: 1.13  
Cloud being used: bare-metal  
Installation method:  
Host OS: Centos 7  
CRI and version: docker 20.10.7