If you’re looking for an easy way to manage your Podman container deployments on AlmaLinux, Jack Wallen believes Cockpit is one of the simplest solutions.
AlmaLinux is an excellent option for businesses looking for a server-based operating system that can host an endless stream of services and applications. But for those who want to use AlmaLinux as a container implementation platform, you must migrate from docker to Podman, as the container runtime supported by RHEL-based OS has changed, and getting Docker up and running on the OS is a serious challenge.
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Fortunately, you don’t have to worry so much about learning a completely different set of commands, as Podman is almost a 1:1 replacement for Docker. Another reason is that you can add Podman support to: Cockpitfor a web-based GUI to manage your containers.
Cockpit is the default web management panel for all things RHEL, and AlmaLinux also benefits from the tool.
I want to show you how to add Podman support to AlmaLinux and how to access it from Cockpit.
What you need
All you need to add Podman support to Cockpit is a running instance of AlmaLinux and a user with sudo privileges. That’s it, let’s get to work.
How to add Podman support
First, Podman should already be installed on AlmaLinux by default. If you are not sure, log into your AlmaLinux instance and run the command:
podman -v
The output must contain the version of Podman currently installed on AlmaLinux.
Run the following command to add Podman support to Cockpit:
sudo dnf install cockpit-podman -y
That’s all there is to install.
Enable Cockpit
For some reason, Cockpit is installed by default but not enabled (this really needs to be changed). The good news is that enabling Cockpit is very simple. From the terminal window, issue the command:
sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket
How to access Cockpit
Now that Cockpit is successfully enabled, open a web browser and point it to https://SERVER:9090 (where SERVER is the IP address or domain of the hosting server.
You will be greeted by the Cockpit login window, which (strangely) still bears the CentOS Stream brand (Image A†
Image A
Log in with any account that has sudo permissions and you should see the Podman containers in the left navigation (Figure B†
Figure B
Clicking on Podman containers will inform you that the daemon is not running (Figure C†
Figure C
Click Start Podman to start the daemon. Once the daemon has started, you will be redirected back to the container management window (Figure D), where you can create your first container.
Figure D
How to make your first container
Since we’re here, let’s create our first Podman container. Click Create Container and in the resulting window type nginx in the image search field. Make sure to select an official version of the nginx image. After selecting the image, click Integration and add any needed port mapping (such as external port 8080 to internal port 80–Figure E†
Figure E
Click Create and the image will be downloaded and the container deployed. You can then point your web browser to the IP address of your AlmaLinux server on port 8080 to view the NGINX welcome page (Figure F†
Figure F
Congratulations, you have just added Podman support to AlmaLinux to make it easier to manage your Podman container deployments.
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