Container images are managed in a clustered container host system with a shared storage device. Hosts of the system each include a virtualization software layer that supports execution of virtual machines (VMs), one or more of which are pod VMs that have implemented therein a container engine that supports execution of containers within the respective pod VM. A method of deploying containers includes determining, from pod objects published by a master device of the system and accessible by all hosts of the system, that a new pod VM is to be created, creating the new pod VM, and spinning up one or more containers in the new pod VM using images of containers previously spun up in another pod VM, wherein the images of the containers previously spun up in the other pod VM are stored in the storage device.