Managing Pods Using Podman on RHEL

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Managing Pods Using Podman on RHEL

Unlike Docker’s single-container concept, Podman brings the ability to run multiple containers in a pod. In this lab, we will examine how to manage multiple containers as part of a pod. Upon completion of this lab, you will be able to use Podman to manage pods.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Sep 16, 2025

Duration

1h 0m

Challenge

Run a Rootless Pod
Perform the following tasks as a non-root user:
- Check for existing rootless containers and pods.
- Create a pod named wp-pod, with port 80 in the pod published to 8080 on the host.
- Check again for pods and containers, and confirm that you see an Infra container.
- Start the mariadb container:
  
  Name the container wp-db
  
  Add the container to the wp-pod pod
  
  Set --restart=always
  
  Use the mariadb short name for the container image
  
  Set the following environment variables:
  
  MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="dbpass"
  
  MYSQL_DATABASE="wp"
  
  MYSQL_USER="wordpress"
  
  MYSQL_PASSWORD="wppass"
- Check for containers again, and confirm that you see the mariadb container.
- Start the WordPress container:
  
  Name the container wp-web
  
  Add the container to the wp-pod pod
  
  Set --restart=always
  
  Use the wordpress short name for the container image
  
  Set the following environment variables:
  
  WORDPRESS_DB_NAME="wp"
  
  WORDPRESS_DB_USER="wordpress"
  
  WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD="wppass"
  
  WORDPRESS_DB_HOST="127.0.0.1"
- Check for containers again, and confirm that you see the Wordpress container.
- Check connectivity with a curl command on localhost:8080. Since nothing is returned, immediately check the exit code and confirm it is 0.
- In a web browser, connect to the lab server's public IP address or DNS name on port 8080 and confirm that the Wordpress page is functional.
Challenge

Run a Rootfull Pod
Perform the following tasks as the root user:
- Become the root user.
- Check for existing rootfull containers and pods.
- Create a pod named root-wp-pod, with port 80 in the pod published to 8081 on the host.
- Check again for pods and containers, and confirm that you see an Infra container.
- Start the mariadb container:
  
  Name the container root-wp-db
  
  Add the container to the root-wp-pod pod
  
  Set --restart=always
  
  Use the mariadb short name for the container image
  
  Set the following environment variables:
  
  MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD="dbpass"
  
  MYSQL_DATABASE="wp"
  
  MYSQL_USER="wordpress"
  
  MYSQL_PASSWORD="wppass"
- Check for containers again, and confirm that you see the mariadb container.
- Start the WordPress container:
  
  Name the container root-wp-web
  
  Add the container to the root-wp-pod pod
  
  Set --restart=always
  
  Use the wordpress short name for the container image
  
  Set the following environment variables:
  
  WORDPRESS_DB_NAME="wp"
  
  WORDPRESS_DB_USER="wordpress"
  
  WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD="wppass"
  
  WORDPRESS_DB_HOST="127.0.0.1"
- Check for containers again, and confirm that you see the Wordpress container.
- Check connectivity with a curl command on localhost:8081. Since nothing is returned, immediately check the exit code and confirm it is 0.
- In a web browser, connect to the lab server's public IP address or DNS name on port 8081 and confirm that the Wordpress page is functional.
Challenge

Manage a Rootless Pod
Perform the following tasks as a non-root user:
- Check for any containers and pods that are running, which should include the wp-pod pod and its containers.
- Stop the wp-pod pod, along with its containers.
- Check the pods and containers again, and confirm that they have been stopped.
- Start the wp-pod pod, along with all its containers.
- Check the pods and containers again, and confirm that they have been started.
- Restart the wp-pod pod, along with all its containers.
- Check the pods and containers again, and confirm that they have been restarted.
- Get information about the wp-pod pod.
- List the wp-pod pod's processes.
- Kill and remove the wp-pod pod and its containers.
- Check the pods and containers again, and confirm that they have been removed.
- Clean up any reclaimable space using podman system commands, and confirm it has been cleaned up.
Challenge

Manage a Rootfull Pod
Perform the following tasks as the root user:
- Become the root user.
- Check for any containers and pods that are running, which should include the root-wp-pod pod and its containers.
- Pause the root-wp-pod pod, along with its containers.
- Check the pods and containers again, and confirm that they have been paused.
- Unpause the root-wp-pod pod.
- Check the pods and containers again, and confirm that they have been unpaused.
- Pull performance statistics for the root-wp-pod pod and its containers.
- Stop the root-wp-pod pod.
- Clean up any reclaimable space using podman system and podman pod commands, and confirm it has been cleaned up.

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