What are Docker Volumes used for?

Docker Volumes are used for persistent data storage that is created and used by containers. Main purposes:

• Data preservation outside the container's lifecycle: data in the volume is retained when the container is deleted or recreated.
• Shared access to data between containers: multiple containers can mount the same volume.
• Data isolation from the host filesystem: volumes are managed by Docker and optimized for container use.

Example of creating and using a volume:

docker volume create mydata

docker run -d -v mydata:/var/lib/postgresql/data postgres

Here, PostgreSQL data will be stored in the mydata volume, allowing the database to be preserved across container restarts.