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Installing and Configuring Podman

Introduction​

Podman is a powerful, daemonless container engine for developing, managing, and running OCI Containers on your Linux system. It provides a simple CLI interface and can run rootless containers. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing and configuring Podman on a Raspberry Pi.

Prerequisites​

  • A Raspberry Pi with Raspbian (Raspberry Pi OS) installed.
  • Internet connection.
  • Basic knowledge of using the terminal.

Step 1: Update Your System​

Before installing Podman, ensure your system is up-to-date.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Dependencies​

Podman requires certain dependencies to be installed. Use the following command to install them:

sudo apt install -y software-properties-common uidmap

Step 3: Add the Podman Repository​

Add the Podman repository to your system to ensure you get the latest version.

. /etc/os-release
echo "deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/kubic:/libcontainers:/stable/Debian_$VERSION_CODENAME/ /" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/devel:kubic:libcontainers:stable.list
curl -L "https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/kubic:/libcontainers:/stable/Debian_$VERSION_CODENAME/Release.key" | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt update

Step 4: Install Podman​

With the repository added, you can now install Podman.

sudo apt install -y podman

Step 5: Verify Installation​

To verify that Podman has been installed correctly, run the following command:

podman --version

You should see the version of Podman that was installed.

Step 6: Basic Configuration​

1. Creating a User Namespace​

Podman can run containers in rootless mode, which improves security. To enable this, create a user namespace for your user.

sudo usermod --add-subuids 100000-165535 --add-subgids 100000-165535 $(whoami)

2. Setting Up Podman Configuration​

Create the necessary directories and configuration files for rootless operation.

mkdir -p ~/.config/containers
cat <<EOF > ~/.config/containers/containers.conf
[containers]
log_size_max = -1
EOF

Step 7: Running Your First Container​

Now that Podman is installed and configured, let's run a simple container to ensure everything is working correctly.

podman run --rm -it alpine sh

This command pulls the Alpine Linux image from the default registry and starts a shell session in the container. The --rm flag ensures the container is removed after it exits, and -it provides an interactive terminal.

Step 8: Managing Containers with Podman​

Podman provides many commands similar to Docker for managing containers. Here are a few examples:

1. List Running Containers​

podman ps

2. List All Containers (Running and Stopped)​

podman ps -a

3. Stop a Running Container​

podman stop <container_id>

4. Remove a Container​

podman rm <container_id>

Step 9: Podman Compose​

To manage multi-container applications, you can use podman-compose, which is similar to Docker Compose.

1. Install Podman Compose​

sudo apt install -y python3-pip
pip3 install podman-compose

2. Create a Compose File​

Create a docker-compose.yml file for your multi-container application. For example:

version: '3'
services:
  web:
    image: nginx
    ports:
      - "80:80"
  db:
    image: postgres
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: example

3. Run the Compose File​

Use podman-compose to start your multi-container application:

podman-compose up

Configuring Fail2Ban​

Fail2Ban helps protect your server from brute-force attacks by banning IP addresses that show malicious signs.

  1. Install Fail2Ban:

    sudo apt-get install fail2ban

  2. Create a local configuration file to override the default settings:

    sudo cp /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

  3. Open the local configuration file:

    sudo nano /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

  4. Find the [sshd] section and configure it as follows:

    [sshd]
    enabled = true
    port = 2222
    filter = sshd
    logpath = /var/log/auth.log
    maxretry = 3

  5. Restart Fail2Ban to apply the changes:

    sudo systemctl restart fail2ban

Conclusion​

You have successfully installed and configured Podman on your Raspberry Pi. Podman provides a secure and efficient way to manage containers on your device. With the basics covered, you can explore more advanced features and capabilities of Podman to suit your container management needs.

Additional Resources​