Install Virtainer Lite

Virtainer Lite ships as a single Fedora bootc image. You install it by booting the target host from a Fedora LiveCD and writing that image directly to the host’s disk with bootc. The install itself is one podman command that you run from the live environment.

Danger

The installer erases the target disk. It runs with --wipe and writes to /dev/sda, so every existing partition on that disk is destroyed. Confirm the target device and back up anything you need before you start.

Before you begin

• A host you can boot from a Fedora LiveCD. The latest official stable Fedora release is highly recommended.
• Internet access from the live environment. The installer pulls the Virtainer Lite image from quay.io during the install, so the host must be online.
• The target disk for the install. The examples below use /dev/sda; replace it with the correct device for your host.
• The network setup the host should use: DHCP, or a static address with its gateway, netmask, and interface name.

Install

1. Boot the host from a Fedora LiveCD.

   Working from the live environment also lets you read the host’s real disk and network interface names before you install. Both vary from machine to machine, and you need them in the steps below.

   Optional: on a host with less than 12 GB of RAM, give the live environment a larger writable overlay so the installer has room to work. Append this to the kernel command line in GRUB before booting:

   GRUB kernel command line

   rd.live.overlay.size=12G

2. Put SELinux into permissive mode for the install session:

   sudo setenforce 0

3. Write Virtainer Lite to the disk.

   Run the installer from the live environment. Pick the tab that matches how the host should get its network address, and replace /dev/sda with your target disk.

   DHCP

   sudo podman run --rm \
     --privileged \
     --pid=host \
     --ipc=host \
     --security-opt label=disable \
     -v /dev:/dev \
     quay.io/virtainer/lite:latest \
     bootc install to-disk \
     --source-imgref registry:quay.io/virtainer/lite:latest \
     --wipe \
     --block-setup=direct \
     --disable-selinux \
     --filesystem=xfs \
     --bootloader=grub \
     --karg=ignition.firstboot=1 \
     --karg=ignition.platform.id=metal \
     --karg=rd.neednet=1 \
     --karg=ip=dhcp \
     /dev/sda

   Static IP

   Replace the address, gateway, netmask, and interface name with values for your host. The ip= value uses the format ip=<address>::<gateway>:<netmask>::<interface>:none.

   The interface name (ens18 in the example) is host-specific: Linux derives it from the hardware and firmware, so it differs between machines. From the live environment, list the host’s interfaces to find the right name before you run the installer:

   ip -br link

   Then write Virtainer Lite to the disk:

   sudo podman run --rm \
     --privileged \
     --pid=host \
     --ipc=host \
     --security-opt label=disable \
     -v /dev:/dev \
     quay.io/virtainer/lite:latest \
     bootc install to-disk \
     --source-imgref registry:quay.io/virtainer/lite:latest \
     --wipe \
     --block-setup=direct \
     --disable-selinux \
     --filesystem=xfs \
     --bootloader=grub \
     --karg=ignition.firstboot=1 \
     --karg=ignition.platform.id=metal \
     --karg=rd.neednet=1 \
     --karg=ip=192.168.50.100::192.168.50.1:255.255.255.0::ens18:none \
     --karg=nameserver=1.1.1.1 \
     /dev/sda

   Note

   The --karg=ip address is only temporary connectivity so you can reach the host for first-time setup. You configure the host’s permanent network during initialization.

4. Reboot the host and remove the live media. The host boots from disk into Virtainer Lite.

Access Virtainer Lite

Once the host has rebooted, open Virtainer Lite in a browser at http://<host-ip>:8080. Use the address the host has on your network: its DHCP lease, or the static address you set during install (for the example above, that is http://192.168.50.100:8080).

• First visit: complete the one-time initialization to set up Virtainer Lite.
• After initialization: open the same URL for day-to-day operation, such as creating and managing VMs and AppVMs.