Ceph vs Lustre
Ceph
ceph.io
Lustre
lustre.orgSide by side
| Figure | Ceph | Lustre |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Distributed File System Software | 8.8 (#3) | 7.4 (#20) |
| Intended users | The maker identifies SMEs, global organizations, academic institutions, startups, and developers as Ceph audiences. | The official site describes Lustre as supporting leadership-class HPC simulation environments, and its documentation covers deployments from smaller HPC systems to supercomputers. |
Plans
In their own words
Ceph
Ceph is free, open-source distributed storage software for object, block, and file storage in one system. Organizations run clusters on commodity hardware that they choose and manage. Its RGW object storage supports the S3 API and Swift-compatible applications. RBD provides thin-provisioned disk images, snapshots, writable clones, and asynchronous mirroring to remote Ceph clusters. CephFS is a POSIX-compliant distributed filesystem with snapshots, quotas, and multi-cluster mirroring. The system can replicate data across devices, racks, and geographic locations, then redistribute it following hardware or connectivity failures. For Kubernetes, the project recommends Rook to run Ceph or connect an existing cluster; its CSI driver can provision block and file volumes. Installation choices include packages, container images, source clones, and tarballs. The cephadm tool requires Python 3, systemd, and Podman or Docker. Production guidance calls for at least three monitors, two managers, three OSDs, and 10 Gb/s networking between hosts. The project publishes a stable release annually and supports each series for approximately 24 months.