Podman: Could use podman to manage pods/containers running on containerd/cri-o?

[dungdm93]

I am looking for Docker-friendly tool work with pods on containerd/cri-o and podman is a good option.

However, after some works, I realize that podman is more like a standalone daemonless container engine (like rkt) than a client tool for existed engine like containerd or cri-o.

So my question is: Could I use podman to manage pods/containers running on containerd or cri-o?

[mheon]

Sorry, but I don't think this is possible without an extensive rewrite. Podman is entirely based on libpod, and has no real provision for talking to another container engine over an API.

[rhatdan]

@dungdm93 The tool you are looking for is crictl.

But why do you think you need a container engine like cri-o or contianerd? Those are only necessary if you are using higher level tools like container orchestrator's like Kubernetes.

Even if podman could launch a container in CRI-O, if you were running with kubernetes, it would want the container killed, since k8s wants full control over the CRI.

podman and Buildah do share the container/storage with CRI-O though, which means the local store of images can be shared between all three container engines.

[dungdm93]

@rhatdan @mheon I do use kubernetes to launch pods. However sometimes, I wanna hacking the way k8s work, or... just trouble shooting. I already use crictl, but I more familiar with docker cli, that is why I try podman.
As you mention, podman, buildah and cri-o share images, but don't share containers. So I wonder which scenario podman is good for?

[rhatdan]

One feature that podman is adding is the ability to create kubernetes yaml files out of running contianers/pods. That then could be used to launch equivalent pods under kubernetes/CRI-O.

Look at:

podman generate kube

To generate yaml

podman play kube

[rawkode]

This is a shame. For users on a Mac, running a xhyve VM with containerd, using podman would be an option if it supported a remote engine. This leaves very few options, with just running Docker becoming the default; even for those of curious mind.

[mheon]

We are adding support for remote connections (connecting to a remote Podman instance via Varlink over SSH). I don't think we have any intent of supporting the Docker/containerd/CRI remote APIs in addition to that.

[rawkode]

Awesome. I'll search for an issue to follow. Cheers @mheon

[rhatdan]

Just look at the podman-remote work.

https://github.com/containers/libpod/pulls?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed+remote

If you would like to contribute or try it out, we would love the help.

[rhatdan]

Since this is being worked on closing this issue.