This talk outlines our journey in building a reproducible Ceph object storage setup that can be deployed across multiple regions with a single click, using an Configuration-as-Code approach with Rook. Our primary goal was to replace OpenStack Swift with Ceph RGW to achieve strictly consistent object storage while maintaining backward compatibility with existing OpenStack components such as Keystone and Barbican.

The good news? Many of these capabilities already existed in Ceph, albeit in varying states of readiness. However, not all of them were natively configurable in a declarative manner using Rook. This presentation will dive into the challenges we encountered while integrating Ceph, OpenStack, and Rook. We'll explore the gaps we identified, the features we developed or refined, and the current state of the ecosystem for those considering a similar path today.

Attendees will gain practical insights into building resilient object storage solutions and learn how to navigate the complexities of integrating Ceph into modern cloud-native and OpenStack environments.