I’m trying to get podman-auto-update working on my Oracle Linux 9 VM, but no matter what I do, I keep seeing pod has no infra container: no such container for every container when I update. I’ve done this on Ubuntu and Debian easily, but it’s my first time on Oracle Linux (aarch64) VM. I’ve done all the simple steps, like adding io.containers.autoupdate: "registry" to each service. I’ve started and enabled the podman-auto-update.timer service. I made a folder ~/.config/systemd/user for unit files and ~/.config/containers/systemd for the quadlets (I’ll explain later).

Here’s what I’ve tried:

1. I used a docker-compose.yaml and podman-compose to start containers. Then, I made unit files with podman generate systemd --new --name --files "${container_name}". I enabled and started them with systemctl —user enable --now container-container-name.service and tried podman auto-update —dry-run, but I got the error.

2. Starting with running containers again, I tried using the podlet tool to make .container files and put them in the right place. I reloaded the daemon with systemctl —user daemon-reload and started the services with systemctl —user start container.service. But, trying podman auto-update gave me errors again.
3. I used podman-compose‘s built-in podman-compose systemd -a register to make unit files. I started the services using the project name and ran podman auto-update, only to face the same errors again.

I only recently moved to podman from docker, and from what I’ve read, it should work. Maybe there’s something I’m overlooking on this OS that makes it act differently than on Debian systems. However, Oracle’s own website has guides that cover the same steps I’ve followed. But now, I’m not sure what to do next.

Here are some code examples that might help:

podman ps and pod ps

# podman pod ps
POD ID        NAME            STATUS      CREATED         INFRA ID    # OF CONTAINERS
704df5a222a8  pod_prometheus  Running     56 seconds ago              3

# podman ps 
CONTAINER ID  NAMES              CREATED AT                               NETWORKS            STATE       RUNNING FOR
dde4a4903a74  prometheus         2024-07-02 14:46:53.18294316 +0000 UTC   prometheus_default  running     About a minute ago
f3971b55ca48  node-exporter      2024-07-02 14:46:53.568501168 +0000 UTC  prometheus_default  running     About a minute ago
f8a671a27bae  fail2ban-exporter  2024-07-02 14:46:53.833046775 +0000 UTC  prometheus_default  running     About a minute ago

docker-compose.yaml

volumes:
  prometheus_data:
    external: true

services:
  prometheus:
    image: docker.io/prom/prometheus:latest
    container_name: prometheus
    ports:
      - "9090:9090"
    volumes:
      - ./prometheus.yaml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml:Z
      - "prometheus_data:/prometheus"
    restart: unless-stopped
    command:
      - "--config.file=/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml"
    labels:
      io.containers.autoupdate: "registry"

  node_exporter:
    image: quay.io/prometheus/node-exporter:latest
    container_name: node-exporter
    command:
      - "--path.rootfs=/host"
    pid: host
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - "/:/host:ro,rslave"
    labels:
      io.containers.autoupdate: "registry"

  fail2ban:
    image: registry.gitlab.com/hectorjsmith/fail2ban-prometheus-exporter:latest
    container_name: fail2ban-exporter
    volumes:
    - /var/run/fail2ban/:/var/run/fail2ban:Z
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
    - "9191:9191"
    pid: host
    labels:
      io.containers.autoupdate: "registry"

podman version

Client:       Podman Engine
Version:      4.9.4-rhel
API Version:  4.9.4-rhel
Go Version:   go1.21.10 (Red Hat 1.21.10-1.el9_4)
Built:        Tue Jun 11 22:06:37 2024
OS/Arch:      linux/arm64

example .container file

[Container]
AutoUpdate=registry
ContainerName=prometheus
Exec='--config.file=/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml'
Image=docker.io/prom/prometheus:latest
Label=io.podman.compose.config-hash=4cefa381d4d552f6c8f072986156a7dd249e5e4566e065c9f1f5048063348bad io.podman.compose.project=prometheus io.podman.compose.version=1.2.0 [email protected] com.docker.compose.project=prometheus com.docker.compose.project.working_dir=/home/tbryant/DEV/docker-apps/Monitoring/Active/prometheus/homelab-oci03 com.docker.compose.project.config_files=docker-compose.yaml com.docker.compose.container-number=1 com.docker.compose.service=prometheus
Network=prometheus_default
PodmanArgs=--network-alias prometheus --pod pod_prometheus
PublishPort=9090:9090
Volume=/home/tbryant/DEV/docker-apps/Monitoring/Active/prometheus/homelab-oci03/prometheus.yaml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml:Z
Volume=prometheus_data:/prometheus

[Service]
Restart=always


[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

example unit file

# container-prometheus.service
# autogenerated by Podman 4.9.4-rhel
# Tue Jul  2 14:46:16 GMT 2024

[Unit]
Description=Podman container-prometheus.service
Documentation=man:podman-generate-systemd(1)
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
RequiresMountsFor=%t/containers

[Service]
Environment=PODMAN_SYSTEMD_UNIT=%n
Restart=always
TimeoutStopSec=70
ExecStart=/usr/bin/podman run 
        --cidfile=%t/%n.ctr-id 
        --cgroups=no-conmon 
        --rm 
        --sdnotify=conmon 
        --replace 
        --name=prometheus 
        -d 
        --pod=pod_prometheus 
        --label io.containers.autoupdate=registry 
        --label io.podman.compose.config-hash=4cefa381d4d552f6c8f072986156a7dd249e5e4566e065c9f1f5048063348bad 
        --label io.podman.compose.project=prometheus 
        --label io.podman.compose.version=1.2.0 
        --label [email protected] 
        --label com.docker.compose.project=prometheus 
        --label com.docker.compose.project.working_dir=/home/tbryant/DEV/docker-apps/Monitoring/Active/prometheus/homelab-oci03 
        --label com.docker.compose.project.config_files=docker-compose.yaml 
        --label com.docker.compose.container-number=1 
        --label com.docker.compose.service=prometheus 
        -v /home/tbryant/DEV/docker-apps/Monitoring/Active/prometheus/homelab-oci03/prometheus.yaml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml:Z 
        -v prometheus_data:/prometheus 
        --network=prometheus_default 
        --network-alias=prometheus 
        -p 9090:9090 docker.io/prom/prometheus:latest 
        --config.file=/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml
ExecStop=/usr/bin/podman stop 
        --ignore -t 10 
        --cidfile=%t/%n.ctr-id
ExecStopPost=/usr/bin/podman rm 
        -f 
        --ignore -t 10 
        --cidfile=%t/%n.ctr-id
Type=notify
NotifyAccess=all

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target