// Module included in the following assemblies:
//
// * nodes/pods/nodes-pods-image-volume.adoc

:_mod-docs-content-type: CONCEPT
[id="nodes-pods-image-volume-about_{context}"]
= Understanding image volumes

[role="_abstract"]
You can you use an _image volume_ to mount an Open Container Initiative (OCI)-compliant container image or artifact directly into a pod as a native volume source, making the OCI object accessible to the containers without the need to include them in the base image. 

OCI objects enable users to store and distribute arbitrary files and metadata through OCI-compliant container registries.

By using an image volume in a pod, you can take advantage of the OCI image and distribution specification standards to accomplish several tasks including the following use cases: 

//Use cases copied from the enhancement doc: https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/tree/master/keps/sig-node/4639-oci-volume-source
* You can share configuration files among multiple containers in a pod without needing to include the file in the base image, which minimizes security risks and image size. 

* In an artificial intelligence environment, you can use image volumes to mount large language model weights or machine learning model weights in a pod alongside a model-server. You can efficiently serve model weights this way without including them in the model-server container image. Therefore, you can separate the model specifications and content from the executables that process them.

* You can use a public image for a malware scanner and mount it in a volume of private malware signatures, so that you can load those signatures without incorporating the image into a base image, which might not be allowed by the copyright on the public image.

* You can package and distribute binary artifacts and mount them directly into your pods, allowing you to streamline your CI/CD pipeline. This allows you to maintain a small set of base images by attaching the CI/CD artifacts to the image volumes instead.

To mount an image volume, include a path to the image or artifact in your pod spec with an optional pull policy as described in _Adding an image volume to a pod_.
