Ceph CSI (rbd.csi.ceph.com) vs Ceph RBD (kubernetes.io/rbd)

Question

I'm using kubernetes v1.16.10 with a Ceph 13.2.2 Mimic cluster for dynamic volume provisioning through ceph-csi.

But then I have found ceph-rbd

Ceph RBD (kubernetes.io/rbd)

https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/storage-classes/#ceph-rbd

According to:

Ceph CSI (rbd.csi.ceph.com)

https://docs.ceph.com/docs/master/rbd/rbd-kubernetes/#block-devices-and-kubernetes

You may use Ceph Block Device images with Kubernetes v1.13 and later through ceph-csi, which dynamically provisions RBD images to back Kubernetes volumes and maps these RBD images as block devices (optionally mounting a file system contained within the image) on worker nodes running pods that reference an RBD-backed volume.

So... which one should I use?

Advantages / disadvantages?

Thanks in advance.

Northeastwards

it seems that the controller image has removed the binaries needed to use the ceph-rbd storage class. AFAIK ceph-rbd doesn't allow for volume resizing and i am not sure if ceph-csi does have the capability, i have tried to follow the ceph csi guide but failed with some obscure errors. I am also curious of the differences – Englacial

Answer 1

I don't know the exact differences, but I was told from a Ceph CSI developer that the Ceph RBD (kubernetes.io/rbd) i.e. the in-tree driver will be deprecated in a few Kubernetes releases. And I don't have any references to any official documentation as this was a slack conversation.

So the CSI driver is the way forward and makes it more future proof.

Snowonthemountain