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Chapter 11. Setting container network modes

You can configure container network modes by using Podman to define how your workloads communicate with the host and external networks. Selecting the appropriate networking environment ensures optimal performance and security isolation tailored to your specific application requirements.

11.1. Running containers with a static IP
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Assign a specific IP address to a container by using the --ip option. This helps ensure consistent network addressing for services that require fixed IPs.

The podman run command with the --ip option sets the container network interface to a particular IP address, for example, 10.88.0.44. To verify that you set the IP address correctly, run the podman inspect command.

Prerequisites

  • The container-tools meta-package is installed.

Procedure

  • Set the container network interface to the IP address 10.88.0.44: 

    # podman run -d --name=myubi --ip=10.88.0.44 registry.access.redhat.com/ubi10/ubi
efde5f0a8c723f70dd5cb5dc3d5039df3b962fae65575b08662e0d5b5f9fbe85

Verification

  • Check that the IP address is set properly: 

    # podman inspect --format='{{.NetworkSettings.IPAddress}}' myubi
10.88.0.44

You can run the DHCP plugin for Netavark as a systemd service to enable dynamic IP addressing for your containers. By operating this plugin as a persistent service ensures that containerized workloads maintain consistent network connectivity automatically.

Prerequisites

  • The container-tools meta-package is installed.

Procedure

  1. Enable the DHCP proxy by using the systemd socket: 

    systemctl enable --now netavark-dhcp-proxy.socket
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/netavark-dhcp-proxy.socket  /usr/lib/systemd/system/netavark-dhcp-proxy.socket.

  2. Optional: Display the socket unit file: 

    # cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/netavark-dhcp-proxy.socket
[Unit]
Description=Netavark DHCP proxy socket

[Socket]
ListenStream=%t/podman/nv-proxy.sock
SocketMode=0660

[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target

  3. Create a macvlan network and specify your host interface with it. Typically, it is your external interface: 

    # podman network create -d macvlan --interface-name <LAN_INTERFACE> mv1
mv1

  4. Run the container by using newly created network: 

    # podman run --rm --network mv1 -d --name test alpine top
894ae3b6b1081aca2a5d90a9855568eaa533c08a174874be59569d4656f9bc45

Verification

  1. Confirm the container has an IP on your local subnet: 

    # podman exec test ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0@eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP qlen 1000
    link/ether 5a:30:72:bf:13:76 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.188.36/24 brd 192.168.188.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::5830:72ff:febf:1376/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

  2. Inspect the container to verify it uses correct IP addresses: 

    # podman container inspect test --format {{.NetworkSettings.Networks.mv1.IPAddress}}
192.168.188.36
Note

When attempting to connect to this IP address, ensure the connection is made from a different host. Connections from the same host are not supported when using macvlan networking.

11.3. The MacVLAN plugin
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You can connect containers directly to a physical network interface by using the macvlan plugin. This allows containers to appear as physical devices on the network.

Most of the container images do not have a DHCP client, the dhcp plugin acts as a proxy DHCP client for the containers to interact with a DHCP server.

The host system does not have network access to the container. To allow network connections from outside the host to the container, the container has to have an IP on the same network as the host. With the macvlan plugin, you can connect a container to the same network as the host. This only applies to rootfull containers. Rootless containers are not able to use the macvlan and dhcp plugins.

You can create a MacVLAN network by using the podman network create --driver=macvlan command.

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