diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4a6fb6ed..c9c1bdf4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 - Reduce CRD size from `1.4MB` to `96KB` by accepting arbitrary YAML input instead of the underlying schema for the following fields ([#548]):
   - `podOverrides`
   - `affinity`
+- Fix bug where the configuration of the `hbaseRootdir` at the role level is ignored ([#584]).
 
 ### Fixed
 
@@ -28,6 +29,7 @@
 [#556]: https://github.com/stackabletech/hbase-operator/pull/556
 [#558]: https://github.com/stackabletech/hbase-operator/pull/558
 [#574]: https://github.com/stackabletech/hbase-operator/pull/574
+[#584]: https://github.com/stackabletech/hbase-operator/pull/584
 
 ## [24.7.0] - 2024-07-24
 
diff --git a/deploy/config-spec/properties.yaml b/deploy/config-spec/properties.yaml
index 2dc4b619..c3840065 100644
--- a/deploy/config-spec/properties.yaml
+++ b/deploy/config-spec/properties.yaml
@@ -213,14 +213,14 @@ properties:
         type: "string"
       defaultValues:
         - fromVersion: "0.0.0"
-          value: "${hbase.tmp.dir}/hbase"
+          value: "/hbase"
       roles:
         - name: "master"
-          required: false
+          required: true
         - name: "regionserver"
-          required: false
+          required: true # this can be false (only required for master) - kept for compatibility (avoid restarts)
         - name: "restserver"
-          required: false
+          required: true # this can be false (only required for master) - kept for compatibility (avoid restarts)
       asOfVersion: "0.0.0"
       description: "The directory shared by region servers and into which HBase persists. The URL should be 'fully-qualified' to include the filesystem scheme. For example, to specify the HDFS directory '/hbase' where the HDFS instance's namenode is running at namenode.example.org on port 9000, set this value to: hdfs://namenode.example.org:9000/hbase. By default, we write to whatever ${hbase.tmp.dir} is set too -- usually /tmp -- so change this configuration or else all data will be lost on machine restart."
 
diff --git a/deploy/helm/hbase-operator/configs/properties.yaml b/deploy/helm/hbase-operator/configs/properties.yaml
index 2dc4b619..c3840065 100644
--- a/deploy/helm/hbase-operator/configs/properties.yaml
+++ b/deploy/helm/hbase-operator/configs/properties.yaml
@@ -213,14 +213,14 @@ properties:
         type: "string"
       defaultValues:
         - fromVersion: "0.0.0"
-          value: "${hbase.tmp.dir}/hbase"
+          value: "/hbase"
       roles:
         - name: "master"
-          required: false
+          required: true
         - name: "regionserver"
-          required: false
+          required: true # this can be false (only required for master) - kept for compatibility (avoid restarts)
         - name: "restserver"
-          required: false
+          required: true # this can be false (only required for master) - kept for compatibility (avoid restarts)
       asOfVersion: "0.0.0"
       description: "The directory shared by region servers and into which HBase persists. The URL should be 'fully-qualified' to include the filesystem scheme. For example, to specify the HDFS directory '/hbase' where the HDFS instance's namenode is running at namenode.example.org on port 9000, set this value to: hdfs://namenode.example.org:9000/hbase. By default, we write to whatever ${hbase.tmp.dir} is set too -- usually /tmp -- so change this configuration or else all data will be lost on machine restart."
 
diff --git a/rust/crd/src/lib.rs b/rust/crd/src/lib.rs
index 43572e26..590d550d 100644
--- a/rust/crd/src/lib.rs
+++ b/rust/crd/src/lib.rs
@@ -59,7 +59,6 @@ pub const HBASE_ROOTDIR: &str = "hbase.rootdir";
 pub const HBASE_UNSAFE_REGIONSERVER_HOSTNAME_DISABLE_MASTER_REVERSEDNS: &str =
     "hbase.unsafe.regionserver.hostname.disable.master.reversedns";
 pub const HBASE_HEAPSIZE: &str = "HBASE_HEAPSIZE";
-pub const HBASE_ROOT_DIR_DEFAULT: &str = "/hbase";
 
 pub const HBASE_UI_PORT_NAME_HTTP: &str = "ui-http";
 pub const HBASE_UI_PORT_NAME_HTTPS: &str = "ui-https";
@@ -473,15 +472,7 @@ impl Configuration for HbaseConfigFragment {
                     HBASE_UNSAFE_REGIONSERVER_HOSTNAME_DISABLE_MASTER_REVERSEDNS.to_string(),
                     Some("true".to_string()),
                 );
-                result.insert(
-                    HBASE_ROOTDIR.to_string(),
-                    Some(
-                        self.hbase_rootdir
-                            .as_deref()
-                            .unwrap_or(HBASE_ROOT_DIR_DEFAULT)
-                            .to_string(),
-                    ),
-                );
+                result.insert(HBASE_ROOTDIR.to_string(), self.hbase_rootdir.clone());
             }
             _ => {}
         }