Instructions for DIY virtualization/remote setup?

[alshdavid]

With docker you can use the DOCKER_HOST variable and point that to a remote docker machine via ssh.

This allows us to manage our own Linux virtual machine (which allows us to consolidate multiple Linux-only services) or connect to an external networked (more powerful) machine.

Are there instructions for installing podman on a client and pointing it to an external podman host via ssh? Are there instructions on installing podman on Windows/MacOS without the VM so the container host can be manually managed?

[afbjorklund]

It is basically the same thing, but you use CONTAINER_HOST instead. You only need to install podman-remote, on the clients.

https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/docs/tutorials/remote_client.md

One small difference is that Podman requires adding the socket path, whereas Docker sets that up on the server (login environment)

https://docs.docker.com/engine/security/rootless/#expose-docker-api-socket-through-ssh

---

docker (rootless)
systemctl --user enable --now docker.service
sudo loginctl enable-linger $(whoami)
DOCKER_HOST=ssh://<REMOTEUSER>@<REMOTEHOST> # unix:///run/user/1000/docker.sock

podman (rootless)
systemctl --user enable --now podman.socket
sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER
CONTAINER_HOST=ssh://<REMOTEUSER>@<REMOTEHOST>/run/user/1000/podman/podman.sock

[rhatdan]

You can use podman system connection to manage this as well

[afbjorklund]

Similar to using docker context to manage those, same difference ?

The lima examples have some "translations" for both runtimes, for instance:

• https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/blob/master/examples/docker.yaml

DOCKER_HOST
docker context create
docker context use
docker run

• https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/blob/master/examples/podman.yaml

CONTAINER_HOST
podman system connection add
podman system connection default
podman --remote run

[rhatdan]

Yes we really need to get these commands alias.

podman context create -> podman system connection add
podman context use -> podman system connection default