Learn how to – How To Install Podman 3.x on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

Learn how to – How To Install Podman 3.x on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7.

For close to a decade now, the Linux containers adoption as a key open source application packaging and delivery technology is immense. The container technology combines a lightweight application isolation with the flexibility of image-based deployment methods. Podman was created around the Docker container engine technology. Linux containers are implemented on RHEL based systems using core technologies such as:

• Control groups (cgroups) for resource management
• SELinux for security
• Namespaces for process isolation
• Secure multi-tenancy

The use of these technologies aims at reducing the risks for potential security exploits. Podman is a tool created as a Docker alternative to running Linux containers. The main advantages of Podman are as listed:

• Running containers in rootless mode – You can run rootless containers which are more secure, as they run without any added privileges
• Native systemd integration – With Podman you can create systemd unit files and run containers as system services
• No daemon required – Podman have much lower resource requirements at idle since Podman is daemonless.

Install Podman 3.x on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

When Podman installation on CentOS/RHEL 7 system is performed from upstream OS repositories, an older version is installed.

$ podman version
Version:            1.6.4
RemoteAPI Version:  1
Go Version:         go1.12.12
OS/Arch:            linux/amd64

In this article we install the latest Podman 3.x on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7. We’re building the application from source code to get the latest release of software.

Uninstall any older version of Podman in the system.

sudo yum -y remove podman

Step 1 – Install dependencies for building Podman

When performing an installation of Podman 3.x on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7, we’ve to build the application from source. Some dependencies are required for this operation.

Enable EPEL repository:

sudo yum -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

Upgrade and reboot your system

sudo yum -y update
sudo reboot

Install standard build tools on your CentOS 7 / RHEL 7:

sudo yum -y install "@Development Tools"

Install all required deps by running the command below:

sudo yum install -y curl 
  gcc 
  make 
  device-mapper-devel 
  git 
  btrfs-progs-devel 
  conmon 
  containernetworking-plugins 
  containers-common 
  git 
  glib2-devel 
  glibc-devel 
  glibc-static 
  golang-github-cpuguy83-md2man 
  gpgme-devel 
  iptables 
  libassuan-devel 
  libgpg-error-devel 
  libseccomp-devel 
  libselinux-devel 
  pkgconfig 
  systemd-devel 
  autoconf 
  python3 
  python3-devel 
  python3-pip 
  yajl-devel 
  libcap-devel

Wait for the installation of these dependencies to complete then proceed to step 2.

Step 2 – Install Golang on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

You can refer to our guide below on the installation of Go on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7:

• Install Go (Golang) on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

Checking version of Go after a successful installation:

$ go version
go version go1.18.3 linux/amd64

Step 3 – Install conmon and runc

Conmon is used to monitor OCI Runtimes and the package is expected installed on the system. This can be done by executing the following commands in the terminal

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/containers/conmon
cd conmon
export GOCACHE="$(mktemp -d)"
make
sudo make podman
cd ..

If installation was successful the command below should return software version:

$ conmon --version
conmon version 2.0.8
commit: f85c8b1ce77b73bcd48b2d802396321217008762

We also need the latest version of runc installed on the system.

git clone https://github.com/opencontainers/runc.git $GOPATH/src/github.com/opencontainers/runc
cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/opencontainers/runc
make BUILDTAGS="selinux seccomp"
sudo cp runc /usr/bin/runc
cd ~/

Checking version of runc installed:

$ runc --version 
runc version 1.1.0+dev
commit: v1.1.0-233-g2c692a9
spec: 1.0.2-dev
go: go1.18.3
libseccomp: 2.3.1

Step 4 – Setup CNI networking for Podman

A basic setup for CNI networking is required to use Podman. Begin with the creation of required directories:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/containers

Download configuration samples and place in relevant directories.

sudo curl -L -o /etc/containers/registries.conf https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/containers-common/raw/main/f/registries.conf
sudo curl -L -o /etc/containers/policy.json https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/containers-common/raw/main/f/default-policy.json

Step 5 – Build Podman 3.x on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7

Update the pgpme package.

sudo yum remove  gpgme-devel
sudo yum -y install https://cbs.centos.org/kojifiles/packages/gpgme/1.7.1/0.el7.centos.1/x86_64/gpgme-1.7.1-0.el7.centos.1.x86_64.rpm
sudo yum -y install https://cbs.centos.org/kojifiles/packages/gpgme/1.7.1/0.el7.centos.1/x86_64/gpgme-devel-1.7.1-0.el7.centos.1.x86_64.rpm

Clone the podman project source code from Github.

TAG="v3.4.7"
rm -rf podman*
sudo yum -y install wget
wget https://github.com/containers/podman/archive/refs/tags/${TAG}.tar.gz

Extract downloaded file

tar xvf ${TAG}.tar.gz

Change to podman directory and begin the build process.

cd podman*/
make BUILDTAGS="selinux seccomp"
sudo make install PREFIX=/usr

List of available build tags, feature and dependency:

You can check the version of Podman 3 installed on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7 after the build.

$ podman  version
Version:      3.4.4
API Version:  3.4.4
Go Version:   go1.17.6
Built:        Tue Feb  1 19:26:56 2022
OS/Arch:      linux/amd64

The next article to read is on the usage of Podman:

• Run Docker Containers using Podman and Libpod

More articles on containerization:

• How To Manage Podman Containers With Vagrant
• Run Microsoft SQL Server in Podman|Docker Container
• Run FreeIPA Server in Docker / Podman Containers