>rook

rook

A Kubernetes-native storage orchestrator that automates the deployment, scaling, healing, and management of storage systems

ceph/ceph

minio/minio

openebs/jiva

longhornio/longhorn-manager

What is rook image?

The rook image refers to the container images used by the Rook project, a Kubernetes-native storage orchestrator that automates the deployment, scaling, healing, and management of storage systems. Rook’s most widely used backend is Ceph, and the rook/ceph image packages the Ceph daemons (MON, OSD, MGR, MDS, RGW) in a Kubernetes-friendly format.

Rook abstracts the complexity of operating Ceph by handling tasks such as OSD provisioning, disk discovery, configuration management, health checks, upgrades, and failover — all through Kubernetes CRDs. This makes it possible to run enterprise-grade, fault-tolerant distributed storage inside Kubernetes clusters without managing Ceph manually.

In modern infrastructure, the rook/ceph image plays a key role in providing persistent volumes for stateful workloads, massively scalable object storage (via RGW), distributed block storage (via RBD), and distributed file systems (via CephFS). It’s especially valuable for on-prem clusters, hybrid cloud environments, and air-gapped deployments.

How to use this image

The rook/ceph image is not run directly with docker run; instead, Rook uses Kubernetes Operators and CRDs to orchestrate the Ceph containers. The typical usage pattern is deploying Rook via Helm or manifests and letting the operator manage the cluster lifecycle.

Install Rook via Helm:

helm repo add rook-release https://charts.rook.io/release
helm install rook-ceph rook-release/rook-ceph --namespace rook-ceph --create-namespace

Deploy a CephCluster CRD:

apiVersion: ceph.rook.io/v1
kind: CephCluster
metadata:
  name: my-ceph
  namespace: rook-ceph
spec:
  dataDirHostPath: /var/lib/rook
  mon:
    count: 3
  storage:
    useAllNodes: true
    useAllDevices: true

Check Rook-managed Ceph status:

kubectl -n rook-ceph exec deploy/rook-ceph-tools -- ceph status

Rook manages logs through Kubernetes’ standard logging pipeline (stdout/stderr). All Ceph ports are abstracted behind Kubernetes Services, so you rarely interact with daemons directly.

Image variants

Published under rook/ceph, the image is available in several variants:

rook/ceph:latest
Tracks the most recent operator release.
Best for testing or sandbox environments.
rook/ceph: Versioned tags aligned with Rook releases (e.g., v1.14.6). Recommended for production to ensure compatibility between the operator and Ceph daemons.
rook/ceph:-ubi UBI-based image variants (Red Hat Universal Base Image). Designed for enterprises requiring RHEL-compatible bases.

Note: Rook uses ceph/ceph images internally for the actual Ceph daemons; rook/ceph contains the operator and related components.

rook

What is rook image?

How to use this image

Image variants

Interested in base images that start and stay clean?