12.7. Automatically starting pods using systemd

Procedure

1. Create an empty pod, for example named systemd-pod:

   $ podman pod create --name systemd-pod
   11d4646ba41b1fffa51c108cbdf97cfab3213f7bd9b3e1ca52fe81b90fed5577

2. Optional: List all pods:

   $ podman pod ps
   POD ID        NAME         STATUS   CREATED         # OF CONTAINERS  INFRA ID
   11d4646ba41b  systemd-pod  Created  40 seconds ago  1                8a428b257111
   11d4646ba41b1fffa51c108cbdf97cfab3213f7bd9b3e1ca52fe81b90fed5577

3. Create two containers in the empty pod. For example, to create container0 and container1 in systemd-pod:

   $ *podman create --pod systemd-pod --name container0 registry.access.redhat.com/ubi*10 top
   $ *podman create --pod systemd-pod --name container1 registry.access.redhat.com/ubi*10 top

4. Optional: List all pods and containers associated with them:

   $ podman ps -a --pod
   CONTAINER ID  IMAGE                                   COMMAND  CREATED        STATUS         PORTS   NAMES               POD ID        PODNAME
   24666f47d9b2  registry.access.redhat.com/ubi10:latest  top      3 minutes ago  Created                container0          3130f724e229  systemd-pod
   56eb1bf0cdfe  k8s.gcr.io/pause:3.2                             4 minutes ago  Created                3130f724e229-infra  3130f724e229  systemd-pod
   62118d170e43  registry.access.redhat.com/ubi10:latest  top      3 seconds ago  Created                container1          3130f724e229  systemd-pod

5. Generate the systemd unit file for the new pod:

   $ podman generate systemd --files --name systemd-pod
   /home/user1/pod-systemd-pod.service
   /home/user1/container-container0.service
   /home/user1/container-container1.service

   Note that three systemd unit files are generated, one for the systemd-pod pod and two for the containers container0 and container1.

6. Display pod-systemd-pod.service unit file:

   $ cat pod-systemd-pod.service
   # pod-systemd-pod.service
   # autogenerated by Podman 3.3.1
   # Wed Sep  8 20:49:17 CEST 2021
   
   [Unit]
   Description=Podman pod-systemd-pod.service
   Documentation=man:podman-generate-systemd(1)
   Wants=network-online.target
   After=network-online.target
   RequiresMountsFor=
   Requires=container-container0.service container-container1.service
   Before=container-container0.service container-container1.service
   
   [Service]
   Environment=PODMAN_SYSTEMD_UNIT=%n
   Restart=on-failure
   TimeoutStopSec=70
   ExecStart=/usr/bin/podman start bcb128965b8e-infra
   ExecStop=/usr/bin/podman stop -t 10 bcb128965b8e-infra
   ExecStopPost=/usr/bin/podman stop -t 10 bcb128965b8e-infra
   PIDFile=/run/user/1000/containers/overlay-containers/1dfdcf20e35043939ea3f80f002c65c00d560e47223685dbc3230e26fe001b29/userdata/conmon.pid
   Type=forking
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target default.target

   • The Requires line in the [Unit] section defines dependencies on container-container0.service and container-container1.service unit files. Both unit files will be activated.
   • The ExecStart and ExecStop lines in the [Service] section start and stop the infra-container, respectively.

7. Display container-container0.service unit file:

   $ cat container-container0.service
   # container-container0.service
   # autogenerated by Podman 3.3.1
   # Wed Sep  8 20:49:17 CEST 2021
   
   [Unit]
   Description=Podman container-container0.service
   Documentation=man:podman-generate-systemd(1)
   Wants=network-online.target
   After=network-online.target
   RequiresMountsFor=/run/user/1000/containers
   BindsTo=pod-systemd-pod.service
   After=pod-systemd-pod.service
   
   [Service]
   Environment=PODMAN_SYSTEMD_UNIT=%n
   Restart=on-failure
   TimeoutStopSec=70
   ExecStart=/usr/bin/podman start container0
   ExecStop=/usr/bin/podman stop -t 10 container0
   ExecStopPost=/usr/bin/podman stop -t 10 container0
   PIDFile=/run/user/1000/containers/overlay-containers/4bccd7c8616ae5909b05317df4066fa90a64a067375af5996fdef9152f6d51f5/userdata/conmon.pid
   Type=forking
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target default.target

   • The BindsTo line line in the [Unit] section defines the dependency on the pod-systemd-pod.service unit file
   • The ExecStart and ExecStop lines in the [Service] section start and stop the container0 respectively.

8. Display container-container1.service unit file:

   $ cat container-container1.service

9. Copy all the generated files to $HOME/.config/systemd/user for installing as a non-root user:

   $ cp pod-systemd-pod.service container-container0.service container-container1.service $HOME/.config/systemd/user

10. Enable the service and start at user login:

    $ systemctl enable --user pod-systemd-pod.service
    Created symlink /home/user1/.config/systemd/user/multi-user.target.wants/pod-systemd-pod.service  /home/user1/.config/systemd/user/pod-systemd-pod.service.
    Created symlink /home/user1/.config/systemd/user/default.target.wants/pod-systemd-pod.service  /home/user1/.config/systemd/user/pod-systemd-pod.service.

    Note that the service stops at user logout.