Get started with Podman

Introduction

This lab gets you started using Podman on Oracle Linux 8 or later. You will install Podman, pull an image from a repository, and use the image to run a container.

Objectives

In this lab, you'll:

Install Podman
Pull an image from a repository
Run a container using the pulled image

What Do You Need?

A running system with Oracle Linux installed

Install the Podman Package

Note: When using the free lab environment, see Oracle Linux Lab Basics for connection and other usage instructions.

Open a terminal and connect to your Oracle Linux instance.
Install the container-tools module.
```
sudo dnf module install container-tools:ol8
```
This command will install the container-tools module which contains podman (if not already installed) and other tools, including skopeo and buildah.
One essential tool is container-selinux which allows running podman as a non-root user on a SELinux enabled system.
Dnf will display the container-tools module information, including a list of packages that will be installed and any dependencies.
Type y to proceed with the installation.
Installation of the container-tools module completes.
Check the podman configuration and version.
```
podman info
```
The Podman commands can be run as a regular user, or as a sudo user with elevated privileges. To see further command details use the podman manual pages.
```
man podman
```

Pull the Oracle Linux Slim Image

Container images are hosted in a repository. By default, podman and skopeo on Oracle Linux are configured to use the Oracle Container Registry, Docker Hub, Quay.io, Fedora, and CentOS registries.

Listing the existing images in local storage.
```
podman images
```
Pull the oraclelinux:8-slim image.
```
podman pull os/oraclelinux:8-slim
```
The image downloads to local system storage.
Verify the image downloaded.
```
podman images
```

Run the Oracle Linux Slim Image

Start a container using the oraclelinux:8-slim image. The container in this lab will run an interactive bash terminal.

Create an interactive container running the bash shell.
```
podman run --rm -it oraclelinux:8-slim
```
You are presented a bash terminal where you can run Linux commands within the container.
Exit the container.
```
exit
```
The container is automatically removed after execution due to using the --rm option.
Run the same command again, without the --rm option.
```
podman run -it oraclelinux:8-slim
```
Exit the container as before.
Get a list of all containers in local storage.
```
podman ps -a
```
The -a ensures the output shows both running and non-running containers.

Remove Existing Container and Image

Remove the container and image used in the lab leaving a clean environment.

Remove the container created.
```
podman rm <CONTAINER_ID>
```
Where the <CONTAINER_ID> is determined by running podman ps -a.
Verify the container was removed.
```
podman ps -a
```
Remove the downloaded Oracle Linux Slim image.
```
podman rmi <IMAGE_ID>
```
Where the <IMAGE_ID> is determined by running podman images.