Red Hat Summit Red Hat SummitSupportConsoleDevelopersStart a trialContact

Chapter 18. Configuring unified configuration for rootless podman

You can enable centralized policy management and operational standardization across all rootless users of podman by using a unified system-wide configuration files. You can inherit defaults without manual configuration while maintaining the flexibility to override system defaults through personal configuration files.

By default, the containers.conf rootless was reading /etc/containers/containers.conf for global configuration affecting all users. It lacked a centralized way to set default configurations for rootless Podman across all users on a system without affecting the rootful podman process.

For global configuration that only affects rootless users, use the /etc/containers/containers.rootless.d/*.conf and /etc/containers/containers.rootless.d/$UID/*.conf.

Unified configuration is primarily managed through a set of modular, hierarchical configuration files. The key features and benefits of unified configuration are:

  • For System Administrators: You can set organization-wide defaults for rootless containers, establish consistent configurations across all the users and achieve operational standardization by enforcing common resource limits, registry settings, and runtine behaviors.
  • For End Users: You inherit defaults without manual configuration, override system defaults through personal configuration files, and achieve backward compatibility because you donot need to change existing user workflows or configurations.

Previously, a centralized way was lacked for System administrators to set default configurations for rootless Podman across all users on a system without affecting the rootful podman process.

18.2. Configuring unified configuration
Copy link

To configure a unified setup for rootless Podman on RHEL, you must primarily manage system-wide settings for prerequisites, while allowing users to override specific configurations in their home directories.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed Podman.
  • You have verified whether your rootless configuration is set up.

Procedure

  1. You can configure the unified configuration in two available methods:

    • You can configure the setting for a all non-root user:

      1. Create the /etc/containers/containers.rootless.conf.d/ directory to set it for all non root users. 

        $ mkdir /etc/containers/containers.rootless.conf.d/

      2. Create the /etc/containers/containers.rootless.conf.d/dns.conf configuration file, for example, to set a dns server: 

        [containers]
dns_servers = [
  "1.1.1.1",
  "8.8.8.8",
]

    • You can configure the setting for a specified non-root user:

      1. Create the /etc/containers/containers.rootless.conf.d/UID/ directory to set it for a particular non root user. 

        $ mkdir /etc/containers/containers.rootless.conf.d/UID/

      2. Create the dns.conf configuration file, for example, to set a dns server in the /etc/containers/containers.rootless.conf.d/4242740/dns.conf directory: 

        [containers]
dns_servers = [
  "1.1.1.1",
  "8.8.8.8",
]

        Place the configuration file in the directory named after the user’s UID. This way, podman knows which user to apply the setting for.

Red Hat logoGithubredditYoutubeTwitter

Learn

Try, buy, & sell

Communities

About Red Hat

We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. For more details, see the Red Hat Blog.

About Red Hat Documentation

We help Red Hat users innovate and achieve their goals with our products and services with content they can trust. Explore our recent updates.

Legal Notice

Theme

© 2026 Red HatBack to top