How to use this image

All examples in this guide use the public image. If you've mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored image instead of the public one.

For example:

• Public image: dhi.io/<repository>:<tag>
• Mirrored image: <your-namespace>/dhi-<repository>:<tag>

For the examples, you must first use docker login dhi.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.

Start Cassandra Reaper with the default in-memory backend

The image ships with an in-memory storage backend by default, which is suitable for development or one-off repair orchestration that does not need to survive restarts.

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 -p 8081:8081 dhi.io/cassandra-reaper:4

Open http://localhost:8080/webui/ to access the web UI, or query the REST API on port 8080. The Dropwizard admin port is available on 8081 (http://localhost:8081/healthcheck).

Use a persistent storage backend

For production deployments, bind-mount your own configuration file over /etc/cassandra-reaper/cassandra-reaper.yaml to switch to a Cassandra or PostgreSQL backend. The image includes starter templates at /etc/cassandra-reaper/cassandra-reaper-cassandra.yaml and /etc/cassandra-reaper/cassandra-reaper-memory.yaml for reference; copy the one that matches your backend, edit the contact points / JDBC URL / credentials to match your environment, and mount it back in:

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 -p 8081:8081 \
  -v $(pwd)/my-reaper.yaml:/etc/cassandra-reaper/cassandra-reaper.yaml:ro \
  dhi.io/cassandra-reaper:4

See the upstream Configuration Reference⁠ for the full list of supported keys. Unlike the upstream image, the hardened image does not read REAPER_STORAGE_TYPE, REAPER_CASS_*, or REAPER_DB_* environment variables — these are expressed directly in the configuration file.

Configure authentication

Reaper 4.x uses Dropwizard's built-in access control with JWT session tokens. Admin and read-only credentials are the only settings sourced from environment variables in the hardened image: REAPER_AUTH_USER, REAPER_AUTH_PASSWORD, REAPER_READ_USER, and REAPER_READ_USER_PASSWORD (all empty by default — set them to enable authentication).

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 -p 8081:8081 \
  -e REAPER_AUTH_USER=admin \
  -e REAPER_AUTH_PASSWORD=change-me \
  dhi.io/cassandra-reaper:4

Tuning the JVM

The hardened image invokes java -jar directly; there is no wrapper script reading JAVA_OPTS. Pass JVM flags via JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS, which the Java runtime picks up automatically:

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 -p 8081:8081 \
  -e REAPER_STORAGE_TYPE=memory \
  -e JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS="-XX:+UseG1GC -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=500 -Xms1g -Xmx1g" \
  dhi.io/cassandra-reaper:4

Differences from upstream thelastpickle/cassandra-reaper

Image variants

Docker Hardened Images come in different variants depending on their intended use.

• Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:

  • Run as the nonroot user
  • Do not include a shell or a package manager
  • Contain only the minimal set of libraries needed to run the app

• Build-time variants typically include dev in the variant name and are intended for use in the first stage of a multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:

  • Run as the root user
  • Include a shell and package manager
  • Are used to build or compile applications

• FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure cryptographic operations. The Cassandra Reaper FIPS variant uses a FIPS-validated OpenSSL provider together with the Bouncy Castle FIPS Java provider that ship with the Docker Hardened Images Eclipse Temurin JRE. All TLS/JSSE operations performed by Reaper (for example, JMX-over-SSL, HTTPS connections to Cassandra, PostgreSQL JDBC with SSL) transparently use FIPS-approved algorithms when you run a FIPS variant.

  docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 -p 8081:8081 dhi.io/cassandra-reaper:4-fips
  

  Copy

Migrate to a Docker Hardened Image

To migrate your application to a Docker Hardened Image, you must update your Dockerfile. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing Dockerfile to a Docker Hardened Image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.

The following steps outline the general migration process.

1. Find hardened images for your app.

   A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs.

2. Update the base image in your Dockerfile.

   Update the base image in your application's Dockerfile to the hardened image you found in the previous step. For framework images, this is typically going to be an image tagged as dev because it has the tools needed to install packages and dependencies.

3. For multi-stage Dockerfiles, update the runtime image in your Dockerfile.

   To ensure that your final image is as minimal as possible, you should use a multi-stage build. All stages in your Dockerfile should use a hardened image. While intermediary stages will typically use images tagged as dev, your final runtime stage should use a non-dev image variant.

4. Install additional packages

   Docker Hardened Images contain minimal packages in order to reduce the potential attack surface. You may need to install additional packages in your Dockerfile. Inspect the image variants to identify which packages are already installed.

   Only images tagged as dev typically have package managers. You should use a multi-stage Dockerfile to install the packages. Install the packages in the build stage that uses a dev image. Then, if needed, copy any necessary artifacts to the runtime stage that uses a non-dev image.

   For Alpine-based images, you can use apk to install packages. For Debian-based images, you can use apt-get to install packages.

Troubleshooting migration

The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.

General debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Docker Hardened Images is to use Docker Debug⁠ to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.

Permissions

By default image variants intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as the nonroot user can access them.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. To avoid issues, configure your application to listen on port 1025 or higher inside the container, even if you map it to a lower port on the host. For example, docker run -p 80:8080 my-image will work because the port inside the container is 8080, and docker run -p 80:81 my-image won't work because the port inside the container is 81.

No shell

By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers with no shell.

Entry point

Docker Hardened Images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Use docker inspect to inspect entry points for Docker Hardened Images and update your Dockerfile if necessary.