Harbor on Podman for Rocky Linux 9

This document provides a minimal, engineer‑oriented guide to deploy Harbor on Rocky Linux 9 using Podman and podman‑compose. It covers system preparation, repository setup, configuration, TLS certificate generation and the setup.

1. Prerequisites & System Preparation

1. Update base system

   sudo -i
   dnf update -y
   

2. Enable EPEL and install dependencies

   dnf install -y epel-release
   dnf install -y \
     podman podman-docker buildah podman-compose \
     python3-pip wget tar gzip git \
     policycoreutils-python-utils
   

3. Configure Podman

   • Basic settings

   systemctl enable --now podman.socket
   sed -i 's/unqualified-search-registries = \["registry.access.redhat.com", "registry.redhat.io", "docker.io"\]/unqualified-search-registries = ["docker.io"]/g' /etc/containers/registries.conf
   

   Allow containers to manage cgroups:

   setsebool -P container_manage_cgroup true
   

4. Clone your Git repository

   cd /opt
   git clone https://code.swissmakers.ch/michael.reber/harbor-podman.git
   

5. SELinux configuration Set the correct label on persistent data directory:

   semanage fcontext -a -t svirt_sandbox_file_t "/opt/harbor-podman(/.*)?"
   restorecon -R /opt/harbor-podman
   

6. Firewall (firewalld)

   sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=443/tcp
   sudo firewall-cmd --add-port=443/tcp --permanent
   

3. TLS Certificate Generation

Generate a self‑signed certificate valid for 10 years:

mkdir -p /opt/harbor-podman/cert
openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 -nodes -x509 -days 3650 \
  -subj "/C=CH/ST=Bern/L=Bern/O=Swissmakers/CN=harbor.swissmakers.ch" \
  -keyout /opt/harbor-podman/cert/harbor.key \
  -out    /opt/harbor-podman/cert/harbor.crt

Apply ownership:

chown -R 1000:1000 /opt/harbor-podman

4. Prepare harbor.yml and set passwords

• Copy template:

  cd /opt/harbor-podman
  cp harbor.yml.tmpl harbor.yml
  

• Update Harbor hostname:

  sed -i 's|^hostname:.*|hostname: harbor.swissmakers.ch|' harbor.yml
  

• Generate random passwords for admin and database:

  sed -i "s|^harbor_admin_password:.*|harbor_admin_password: \"$(openssl rand -base64 30)\"|" harbor.yml
  sed -i "/^database:/ { n; n; s|^  password:.*|  password: \"$(openssl rand -base64 30)\"| }" harbor.yml
  

5. Run the modified Installer for Podman

1. Run it with or without included trivy-setup

   ./install.sh --with-trivy
   

2. Verify

   podman ps -a
   podman logs harbor-core
   

Detailed Explanation of Key Adjustments here

• container_manage_cgroup: Allows Podman to manage cgroups under SELinux enforcement.
• SELinux file context: The svirt_sandbox_file_t label authorizes container runtimes to read/write the data directory.
• Password randomization: Avoids default weak credentials; injected via openssl rand -base64.
• Installer script:
  • Removed Docker/docker-compose checks to prevent hard failures under Podman.
  • Overrode DOCKER_COMPOSE to invoke podman-compose transparently.
• Compose file tweaks:
  • Stripped repetitive logging blocks to maintain podman compatibility.
  • Explicit networks stanza ensures containers attach to the correct overlay.