containers.podman.podman_container module – Manage podman containers

Note

This module is part of the containers.podman collection (version 1.11.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install containers.podman. You need further requirements to be able to use this module, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: containers.podman.podman_container.

New in containers.podman 1.0.0

Synopsis

  • Start, stop, restart and manage Podman containers

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

  • podman

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

annotation

dictionary

Add an annotation to the container. The format is key value, multiple times.

authfile

path

Path of the authentication file. Default is ``${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/containers/auth.json`` (Not available for remote commands) You can also override the default path of the authentication file by setting the ``REGISTRY_AUTH_FILE`` environment variable. ``export REGISTRY_AUTH_FILE=path``

blkio_weight

integer

Block IO weight (relative weight) accepts a weight value between 10 and 1000

blkio_weight_device

dictionary

Block IO weight (relative device weight, format DEVICE_NAME[:]WEIGHT).

cap_add

aliases: capabilities

list / elements=string

List of capabilities to add to the container.

cap_drop

list / elements=string

List of capabilities to drop from the container.

cgroup_parent

path

Path to cgroups under which the cgroup for the container will be created. If the path is not absolute, the path is considered to be relative to the cgroups path of the init process. Cgroups will be created if they do not already exist.

cgroupns

string

Path to cgroups under which the cgroup for the container will be created.

cgroups

string

Determines whether the container will create CGroups. Valid values are enabled and disabled, which the default being enabled. The disabled option will force the container to not create CGroups, and thus conflicts with CGroup options cgroupns and cgroup-parent.

cidfile

path

Write the container ID to the file

cmd_args

list / elements=string

Any additional command options you want to pass to podman command itself, for example --log-level=debug or --syslog. This is NOT command to run in container, but rather options for podman itself. For container command please use command option.

command

any

Override command of container. Can be a string or a list.

conmon_pidfile

path

Write the pid of the conmon process to a file. conmon runs in a separate process than Podman, so this is necessary when using systemd to restart Podman containers.

cpu_period

integer

Limit the CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) period

cpu_quota

integer

Limit the CPU CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) quota

cpu_rt_period

integer

Limit the CPU real-time period in microseconds. Limit the container’s Real Time CPU usage. This flag tell the kernel to restrict the container’s Real Time CPU usage to the period you specify.

cpu_rt_runtime

integer

Limit the CPU real-time runtime in microseconds. This flag tells the kernel to limit the amount of time in a given CPU period Real Time tasks may consume.

cpu_shares

integer

CPU shares (relative weight)

cpus

string

Number of CPUs. The default is 0.0 which means no limit.

cpuset_cpus

string

CPUs in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1)

cpuset_mems

string

Memory nodes (MEMs) in which to allow execution (0-3, 0,1). Only effective on NUMA systems.

debug

boolean

Return additional information which can be helpful for investigations.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

detach

boolean

Run container in detach mode

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

detach_keys

string

Override the key sequence for detaching a container. Format is a single character or ctrl-value

device

list / elements=string

Add a host device to the container. The format is <device-on-host>[:<device-on-container>][:<permissions>] (e.g. device /dev/sdc:/dev/xvdc:rwm)

device_read_bps

list / elements=string

Limit read rate (bytes per second) from a device (e.g. device-read-bps /dev/sda:1mb)

device_read_iops

list / elements=string

Limit read rate (IO per second) from a device (e.g. device-read-iops /dev/sda:1000)

device_write_bps

list / elements=string

Limit write rate (bytes per second) to a device (e.g. device-write-bps /dev/sda:1mb)

device_write_iops

list / elements=string

Limit write rate (IO per second) to a device (e.g. device-write-iops /dev/sda:1000)

dns

aliases: dns_servers

list / elements=string

Set custom DNS servers

dns_option

aliases: dns_opts

string

Set custom DNS options

dns_search

aliases: dns_search_domains

string

Set custom DNS search domains (Use dns_search with ‘’ if you don’t wish to set the search domain)

entrypoint

string

Overwrite the default ENTRYPOINT of the image

env

dictionary

Set environment variables. This option allows you to specify arbitrary environment variables that are available for the process that will be launched inside of the container.

env_file

path

Read in a line delimited file of environment variables. Doesn’t support idempotency. If users changes the file with environment variables it’s on them to recreate the container. The file must be present on the REMOTE machine where actual podman is running, not on the controller machine where Ansible is executing. If you need to copy the file from controller to remote machine, use the copy or slurp module.

env_host

boolean

Use all current host environment variables in container. Defaults to false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

etc_hosts

aliases: add_hosts

dictionary

Dict of host-to-IP mappings, where each host name is a key in the dictionary. Each host name will be added to the container’s ``/etc/hosts`` file.

executable

string

Path to podman executable if it is not in the $PATH on the machine running podman

Default: "podman"

expose

aliases: exposed, exposed_ports

list / elements=string

Expose a port, or a range of ports (e.g. expose “3300-3310”) to set up port redirection on the host system.

force_restart

aliases: restart

boolean

Force restart of container.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

generate_systemd

dictionary

Generate systemd unit file for container.

Default: {}

after

list / elements=string

Add the systemd unit after (After=) option, that ordering dependencies between the list of dependencies and this service.

container_prefix

string

Set the systemd unit name prefix for containers. The default is “container”.

names

boolean

Use names of the containers for the start, stop, and description in the unit file. Default is true.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

new

boolean

Create containers and pods when the unit is started instead of expecting them to exist. The default is “false”. Refer to podman-generate-systemd(1) for more information.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

no_header

boolean

Do not generate the header including meta data such as the Podman version and the timestamp. From podman version 3.1.0.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

path

string

Specify a path to the directory where unit files will be generated. Required for this option. If it doesn’t exist, the directory will be created.

pod_prefix

string

Set the systemd unit name prefix for pods. The default is “pod”.

requires

list / elements=string

Set the systemd unit requires (Requires=) option. Similar to wants, but declares a stronger requirement dependency.

restart_policy

string

Specify a restart policy for the service. The restart-policy must be one of “no”, “on-success”, “on-failure”, “on-abnormal”, “on-watchdog”, “on-abort”, or “always”. The default policy is “on-failure”.

Choices:

  • "no"

  • "on-success"

  • "on-failure"

  • "on-abnormal"

  • "on-watchdog"

  • "on-abort"

  • "always"

restart_sec

integer

Set the systemd service restartsec value.

separator

string

Set the systemd unit name separator between the name/id of a container/pod and the prefix. The default is “-” (dash).

start_timeout

integer

Override the default start timeout for the container with the given value.

stop_timeout

integer

Override the default stop timeout for the container with the given value.

time

integer

Override the default stop timeout for the container with the given value.

wants

list / elements=string

Add the systemd unit wants (Wants=) option, that this service is (weak) dependent on.

gidmap

list / elements=string

Run the container in a new user namespace using the supplied mapping.

group_add

aliases: groups

list / elements=string

Add additional groups to run as

healthcheck

string

Set or alter a healthcheck command for a container.

healthcheck_failure_action

string

The action to be taken when the container is considered unhealthy. The action must be one of “none”, “kill”, “restart”, or “stop”. The default policy is “none”.

Choices:

  • "none"

  • "kill"

  • "restart"

  • "stop"

healthcheck_interval

string

Set an interval for the healthchecks (a value of disable results in no automatic timer setup) (default “30s”)

healthcheck_retries

integer

The number of retries allowed before a healthcheck is considered to be unhealthy. The default value is 3.

healthcheck_start_period

string

The initialization time needed for a container to bootstrap. The value can be expressed in time format like 2m3s. The default value is 0s

healthcheck_timeout

string

The maximum time allowed to complete the healthcheck before an interval is considered failed. Like start-period, the value can be expressed in a time format such as 1m22s. The default value is 30s

hooks_dir

list / elements=string

Each .json file in the path configures a hook for Podman containers. For more details on the syntax of the JSON files and the semantics of hook injection, see oci-hooks(5). Can be set multiple times.

hostname

string

Container host name. Sets the container host name that is available inside the container.

http_proxy

boolean

By default proxy environment variables are passed into the container if set for the podman process. This can be disabled by setting the http_proxy option to false. The environment variables passed in include http_proxy, https_proxy, ftp_proxy, no_proxy, and also the upper case versions of those. Defaults to true

Choices:

  • false

  • true

image

string

Repository path (or image name) and tag used to create the container. If an image is not found, the image will be pulled from the registry. If no tag is included, latest will be used.

Can also be an image ID. If this is the case, the image is assumed to be available locally.

image_strict

boolean

Whether to compare images in idempotency by taking into account a full name with registry and namespaces.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

image_volume

string

Tells podman how to handle the builtin image volumes. The options are bind, tmpfs, or ignore (default bind)

Choices:

  • "bind"

  • "tmpfs"

  • "ignore"

init

boolean

Run an init inside the container that forwards signals and reaps processes. The default is false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

init_path

string

Path to the container-init binary.

interactive

boolean

Keep STDIN open even if not attached. The default is false. When set to true, keep stdin open even if not attached. The default is false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

ip

string

Specify a static IP address for the container, for example ‘10.88.64.128’. Can only be used if no additional CNI networks to join were specified via ‘network:’, and if the container is not joining another container’s network namespace via ‘network container:<name|id>’. The address must be within the default CNI network’s pool (default 10.88.0.0/16).

ipc

aliases: ipc_mode

string

Default is to create a private IPC namespace (POSIX SysV IPC) for the container

kernel_memory

string

Kernel memory limit (format <number>[<unit>], where unit = b, k, m or g) Note - idempotency is supported for integers only.

label

aliases: labels

dictionary

Add metadata to a container, pass dictionary of label names and values

label_file

string

Read in a line delimited file of labels

log_driver

string

Logging driver. Used to set the log driver for the container. For example log_driver “k8s-file”.

Choices:

  • "k8s-file"

  • "journald"

  • "json-file"

log_level

string

Logging level for Podman. Log messages above specified level (“debug”|”info”|”warn”|”error”|”fatal”|”panic”) (default “error”)

Choices:

  • "debug"

  • "info"

  • "warn"

  • "error"

  • "fatal"

  • "panic"

log_opt

aliases: log_options

dictionary

Logging driver specific options. Used to set the path to the container log file.

max_size

string

Specify a max size of the log file (e.g 10mb).

path

string

Specify a path to the log file (e.g. /var/log/container/mycontainer.json).

tag

string

Specify a custom log tag for the container.

mac_address

string

Specify a MAC address for the container, for example ‘92:d0:c6:0a:29:33’. Don’t forget that it must be unique within one Ethernet network.

memory

string

Memory limit (format 10k, where unit = b, k, m or g) Note - idempotency is supported for integers only.

memory_reservation

string

Memory soft limit (format 100m, where unit = b, k, m or g) Note - idempotency is supported for integers only.

memory_swap

string

A limit value equal to memory plus swap. Must be used with the -m (–memory) flag. The swap LIMIT should always be larger than -m (–memory) value. By default, the swap LIMIT will be set to double the value of –memory Note - idempotency is supported for integers only.

memory_swappiness

integer

Tune a container’s memory swappiness behavior. Accepts an integer between 0 and 100.

mount

aliases: mounts

list / elements=string

Attach a filesystem mount to the container. bind or tmpfs For example mount “type=bind,source=/path/on/host,destination=/path/in/container”

name

string / required

Name of the container

network

aliases: net, network_mode

list / elements=string

Set the Network mode for the container * bridge create a network stack on the default bridge * none no networking * container:<name|id> reuse another container’s network stack * host use the podman host network stack. * <network-name>|<network-id> connect to a user-defined network * ns:<path> path to a network namespace to join * slirp4netns use slirp4netns to create a user network stack. This is the default for rootless containers

network_aliases

list / elements=string

Add network-scoped alias for the container. A container will only have access to aliases on the first network that it joins. This is a limitation that will be removed in a later release.

no_hosts

boolean

Do not create /etc/hosts for the container Default is false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

oom_kill_disable

boolean

Whether to disable OOM Killer for the container or not. Default is false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

oom_score_adj

integer

Tune the host’s OOM preferences for containers (accepts -1000 to 1000)

pid

aliases: pid_mode

string

Set the PID mode for the container

pids_limit

string

Tune the container’s PIDs limit. Set -1 to have unlimited PIDs for the container.

pod

string

Run container in an existing pod. If you want podman to make the pod for you, prefix the pod name with “new:”

privileged

boolean

Give extended privileges to this container. The default is false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

publish

aliases: ports, published, published_ports

list / elements=string

Publish a container’s port, or range of ports, to the host. Format - ip:hostPort:containerPort | ip::containerPort | hostPort:containerPort | containerPort In case of only containerPort is set, the hostPort will chosen randomly by Podman.

publish_all

boolean

Publish all exposed ports to random ports on the host interfaces. The default is false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

read_only

boolean

Mount the container’s root filesystem as read only. Default is false

Choices:

  • false

  • true

read_only_tmpfs

boolean

If container is running in –read-only mode, then mount a read-write tmpfs on /run, /tmp, and /var/tmp. The default is true

Choices:

  • false

  • true

recreate

boolean

Use with present and started states to force the re-creation of an existing container.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

requires

list / elements=string

Specify one or more requirements. A requirement is a dependency container that will be started before this container. Containers can be specified by name or ID.

restart_policy

string

Restart policy to follow when containers exit. Restart policy will not take effect if a container is stopped via the podman kill or podman stop commands. Valid values are * no - Do not restart containers on exit * on-failure[:max_retries] - Restart containers when they exit with a non-0 exit code, retrying indefinitely or until the optional max_retries count is hit * always - Restart containers when they exit, regardless of status, retrying indefinitely

rm

aliases: remove, auto_remove

boolean

Automatically remove the container when it exits. The default is false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

rootfs

boolean

If true, the first argument refers to an exploded container on the file system. The default is false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

sdnotify

string

Determines how to use the NOTIFY_SOCKET, as passed with systemd and Type=notify. Can be container, conmon, ignore.

secrets

list / elements=string

Add the named secrets into the container. The format is secret[,opt=opt...], see documentation for more details.

security_opt

list / elements=string

Security Options. For example security_opt “seccomp=unconfined”

shm_size

string

Size of /dev/shm. The format is <number><unit>. number must be greater than 0. Unit is optional and can be b (bytes), k (kilobytes), m(megabytes), or g (gigabytes). If you omit the unit, the system uses bytes. If you omit the size entirely, the system uses 64m

sig_proxy

boolean

Proxy signals sent to the podman run command to the container process. SIGCHLD, SIGSTOP, and SIGKILL are not proxied. The default is true.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

state

string

absent - A container matching the specified name will be stopped and removed.

present - Asserts the existence of a container matching the name and any provided configuration parameters. If no container matches the name, a container will be created. If a container matches the name but the provided configuration does not match, the container will be updated, if it can be. If it cannot be updated, it will be removed and re-created with the requested config. Image version will be taken into account when comparing configuration. Use the recreate option to force the re-creation of the matching container.

started - Asserts there is a running container matching the name and any provided configuration. If no container matches the name, a container will be created and started. Use recreate to always re-create a matching container, even if it is running. Use force_restart to force a matching container to be stopped and restarted.

stopped - Asserts that the container is first present, and then if the container is running moves it to a stopped state.

created - Asserts that the container exists with given configuration. If container doesn’t exist, the module creates it and leaves it in ‘created’ state. If configuration doesn’t match or ‘recreate’ option is set, the container will be recreated

Choices:

  • "absent"

  • "present"

  • "stopped"

  • "started" ← (default)

  • "created"

stop_signal

integer

Signal to stop a container. Default is SIGTERM.

stop_timeout

integer

Timeout (in seconds) to stop a container. Default is 10.

subgidname

string

Run the container in a new user namespace using the map with ‘name’ in the /etc/subgid file.

subuidname

string

Run the container in a new user namespace using the map with ‘name’ in the /etc/subuid file.

sysctl

dictionary

Configure namespaced kernel parameters at runtime

systemd

string

Run container in systemd mode. The default is true.

timezone

string

Set timezone in container. This flag takes area-based timezones, GMT time, as well as local, which sets the timezone in the container to match the host machine. See /usr/share/zoneinfo/ for valid timezones. Remote connections use local containers.conf for defaults.

tmpfs

dictionary

Create a tmpfs mount. For example tmpfs “/tmp” “rw,size=787448k,mode=1777”

tty

boolean

Allocate a pseudo-TTY. The default is false.

Choices:

  • false

  • true

uidmap

list / elements=string

Run the container in a new user namespace using the supplied mapping.

ulimit

aliases: ulimits

list / elements=string

Ulimit options

user

string

Sets the username or UID used and optionally the groupname or GID for the specified command.

userns

aliases: userns_mode

string

Set the user namespace mode for the container. It defaults to the PODMAN_USERNS environment variable. An empty value means user namespaces are disabled.

uts

string

Set the UTS mode for the container

volume

aliases: volumes

list / elements=string

Create a bind mount. If you specify, volume /HOST-DIR:/CONTAINER-DIR, podman bind mounts /HOST-DIR in the host to /CONTAINER-DIR in the podman container.

volumes_from

list / elements=string

Mount volumes from the specified container(s).

workdir

aliases: working_dir

string

Working directory inside the container. The default working directory for running binaries within a container is the root directory (/).

Examples

- name: Run container
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: container
    image: quay.io/bitnami/wildfly
    state: started

- name: Create a data container
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: mydata
    image: busybox
    volume:
      - /tmp/data

- name: Re-create a redis container with systemd service file generated in /tmp/
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: myredis
    image: redis
    command: redis-server --appendonly yes
    state: present
    recreate: true
    expose:
      - 6379
    volumes_from:
      - mydata
    generate_systemd:
      path: /tmp/
      restart_policy: always
      time: 120
      names: true
      container_prefix: ainer

- name: Restart a container
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: myapplication
    image: redis
    state: started
    restart: true
    etc_hosts:
        other: "127.0.0.1"
    restart_policy: "no"
    device: "/dev/sda:/dev/xvda:rwm"
    ports:
        - "8080:9000"
        - "127.0.0.1:8081:9001/udp"
    env:
        SECRET_KEY: "ssssh"
        BOOLEAN_KEY: "yes"

- name: Container present
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: mycontainer
    state: present
    image: ubuntu:14.04
    command: "sleep 1d"

- name: Stop a container
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: mycontainer
    state: stopped

- name: Start 4 load-balanced containers
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: "container{{ item }}"
    recreate: true
    image: someuser/anotherappimage
    command: sleep 1d
  with_sequence: count=4

- name: remove container
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: ohno
    state: absent

- name: Writing output
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: myservice
    image: busybox
    log_options: path=/var/log/container/mycontainer.json
    log_driver: k8s-file

- name: Run container with complex command with quotes
  containers.podman.podman_container:
    name: mycontainer
    image: certbot/certbot
    command:
      - renew
      - --deploy-hook
      - "echo 1 > /var/lib/letsencrypt/complete"

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

container

dictionary

Facts representing the current state of the container. Matches the podman inspection output.

Note that facts are part of the registered vars since Ansible 2.8. For compatibility reasons, the facts are also accessible directly as podman_container. Note that the returned fact will be removed in Ansible 2.12.

Empty if state is absent.

Returned: always

Sample: "{ \"AppArmorProfile\": \"\", \"Args\": [ \"sh\" ], \"BoundingCaps\": [ \"CAP_CHOWN\", ... ], \"Config\": { \"Annotations\": { \"io.kubernetes.cri-o.ContainerType\": \"sandbox\", \"io.kubernetes.cri-o.TTY\": \"false\" }, \"AttachStderr\": false, \"AttachStdin\": false, \"AttachStdout\": false, \"Cmd\": [ \"sh\" ], \"Domainname\": \"\", \"Entrypoint\": \"\", \"Env\": [ \"PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin\", \"TERM=xterm\", \"HOSTNAME=\", \"container=podman\" ], \"Hostname\": \"\", \"Image\": \"docker.io/library/busybox:latest\", \"Labels\": null, \"OpenStdin\": false, \"StdinOnce\": false, \"StopSignal\": 15, \"Tty\": false, \"User\": { \"gid\": 0, \"uid\": 0 }, \"Volumes\": null, \"WorkingDir\": \"/\" }, \"ConmonPidFile\": \"...\", \"Created\": \"2019-06-17T19:13:09.873858307+03:00\", \"Dependencies\": [], \"Driver\": \"overlay\", \"EffectiveCaps\": [ \"CAP_CHOWN\", ... ], \"ExecIDs\": [], \"ExitCommand\": [ \"/usr/bin/podman\", \"--root\", ... ], \"GraphDriver\": { ... }, \"HostConfig\": { ... }, \"HostnamePath\": \"...\", \"HostsPath\": \"...\", \"ID\": \"...\", \"Image\": \"...\", \"ImageName\": \"docker.io/library/busybox:latest\", \"IsInfra\": false, \"LogPath\": \"/tmp/container/mycontainer.json\", \"MountLabel\": \"system_u:object_r:container_file_t:s0:c282,c782\", \"Mounts\": [ ... ], \"Name\": \"myservice\", \"Namespace\": \"\", \"NetworkSettings\": { \"Bridge\": \"\", ... }, \"Path\": \"sh\", \"ProcessLabel\": \"system_u:system_r:container_t:s0:c282,c782\", \"ResolvConfPath\": \"...\", \"RestartCount\": 0, \"Rootfs\": \"\", \"State\": { \"Dead\": false, \"Error\": \"\", \"ExitCode\": 0, \"FinishedAt\": \"2019-06-17T19:13:10.157518963+03:00\", \"Healthcheck\": { \"FailingStreak\": 0, \"Log\": null, \"Status\": \"\" }, \"OOMKilled\": false, \"OciVersion\": \"1.0.1-dev\", \"Paused\": false, \"Pid\": 4083, \"Restarting\": false, \"Running\": false, \"StartedAt\": \"2019-06-17T19:13:10.152479729+03:00\", \"Status\": \"exited\" }, \"StaticDir\": \"...\" ... }"

Authors

  • Sagi Shnaidman (@sshnaidm)