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Chapter 1. What is Red Hat build of Podman Desktop?

Important

Red Hat build of Podman Desktop is in Technology Preview. Technology Preview products are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Technology Preview, see Technology Preview Support Scope.

Red Hat build of Podman Desktop is a comprehensive, enterprise-grade developer tool based on the Podman Desktop project. It allows you to set up a local container development environment with access to the Red Hat ecosystem of trusted content. It provides a lightweight, daemonless, and secure workspace for developers to build, manage, and deploy containerized applications across Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Red Hat build of Podman Desktop provides enterprise-grade support to work in restricted networks:

  • Create a default configuration, including registry mirrors and internal registries.
  • Handle corporate proxies so your work is never interrupted.
  • Support the user mode networking feature to stay connected even when you are on a corporate VPN.
  • Add your company’s custom security certificates to meet high IT standards.

Red Hat build of Podman Desktop also supports seamless transition from containers to Kubernetes. Developers can group containers into pods locally, generate Kubernetes YAML, and deploy directly to local (Kind, Minikube, or Red Hat OpenShift Local) or remote OpenShift clusters.

1.1. Key Features
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Red Hat build of Podman Desktop provides the following key functionalities to streamline your daily development tasks:

Deploy consistent configuration across enterprise

Red Hat build of Podman Desktop provides a robust framework for IT administrators to manage local development environments at scale:

  • Deploy administrator-defined settings globally to ensure environment consistency without manual user setup.
  • Lock critical configuration keys, such as proxy servers and security protocols to prevent users from overriding corporate policies.
  • Validate managed configurations at every startup, ensuring corporate updates are immediately reflected across all developer machines.
Manage containers and pods

The Containers and Pods pages in the UI allow you to perform the following tasks:

  • Group multiple containers into a single Pod, mimicking how applications run in Kubernetes and OpenShift environments.
  • Use real-time logs and integrated container terminals to troubleshoot application issues instantly without needing complex CLI commands.
  • Build containers directly from Containerfiles to ensure your local environment exactly matches your company’s automated CI/CD pipelines.
  • Use bulk deletion and unused container removal to keep your workstations clean and optimize system memory and storage.
  • Use one-click Start, Stop, and Restart options to manage complex multi-container applications.
Manage images

The Images page simplifies image management and helps you to perform the following tasks:

  • Pull verified, hardened images from private corporate registries and the official Red Hat container registry.
  • Import and export images from your local machine to work in restricted or offline environments without needing the public internet.
  • Build images locally using Containerfiles or Dockerfiles to ensure your development environment exactly matches your production CI/CD pipeline.
  • Audit and compliance: Use the History tab on the Image Details page to inspect every layer of an image. This ensures no unauthorized software or security vulnerabilities were added.
  • Search and bulk-delete unused images to save storage and keep local developer machines running at peak performance.
Manage Kubernetes resources

The Kubernetes page serves as a critical bridge between a developer’s local machine and a production-grade cluster. It simplifies interaction with Kubernetes resources through the following features:

  • Inspect logs and resource status in real-time to debug cluster issues directly from the UI.
  • Switch between various Kubernetes contexts. For example, switch from a local development cluster to a remote staging cluster, without manually editing the ~/.kube/ configuration file.
  • Run production Kubernetes YAML files directly on Podman, without a cluster, to verify application logic before deployment.
  • Generate Kubernetes-compliant YAML manifests from running containers or pods. These manifests serve as a standardized starting point for your CI/CD pipelines.
  • Push local pods directly to a remote cluster with a single action, streamlining the path to staging.
  • Automate the setup of Red Hat OpenShift Local and Developer Sandbox for zero-cost cloud testing using built-in extensions.
Integrate your tools using extensions

Red Hat build of Podman Desktop is extensible, allowing you to integrate your local development tools. The following built-in extensions help you to access trusted content from the Red Hat ecosystem catalog:

  • Red Hat OpenShift Local: Set up, manage, and interact with a minimal, local OpenShift cluster directly from the UI. This provides a consistent environment for developing and testing applications locally before deploying them to a production OpenShift environment.
  • Developer Sandbox: Connect your local machine to a free, remote OpenShift cluster. You can build, test, and deploy applications through the Red Hat build of Podman Desktop UI. This makes it easy to work in a real OpenShift environment without leaving your desktop tools.

  • Red Hat Authentication: Make it easy to sign in to your Red Hat account. It provides instant access to the free Red Hat Developer Subscription and the Red Hat container registry. This ensures you can pull and manage official images securely from within the application.

    The following extensions are also within the support scope of Red Hat build of Podman Desktop:

    • RHEL VMs: Simplify the creation and management of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) virtual machines on Windows and macOS machines.

    • Bootable Containers (bootc): Turn container images into bootable operating systems. It simplifies development by converting containers into runnable virtual machine disks with just a few clicks.

      These extensions are available for installation through the Extensions > Catalog tab. To access and install them, ensure you are authenticated to the Red Hat registry at registry.redhat.io.

      Note

      For more details on how to authenticate to the Red Hat registry, refer to Access Red Hat content for development.

Manage settings

The Settings page provides centralized configuration management:

  • Create resources for your development environment, such as the Podman machine.

  • Configure corporate proxies and registries:

    • Flexible proxy configuration: Support three proxy modes: System (inherits OS settings), Manual (custom URLs), or Disabled.
    • Encapsulated traffic: Ensure all traffic from the application and the underlying Podman machine is routed through the corporate proxy to comply with security policies.
    • User mode networking: Relay traffic through a user process on the host machine. This resolves common connectivity issues where a VM, the Podman machine, might otherwise be blocked from accessing the network.
    • Internal mirroring with better security and speed: Set up mirror registries to host images internally. Developers can pull images from these local caches instead of the public internet.
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