How to use this image

All examples in this guide use the public image. If you've mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored image instead of the public one.

For example:

• Public image: dhi.io/populator-controller:<tag>
• Mirrored image: <your-namespace>/dhi-populator-controller:<tag>

For the examples, you must first use docker login dhi.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.

Start a populator-controller image

The populator controller is a Kubernetes controller. It reads its cluster credentials from the pod service account, so it is normally deployed by the Forklift operator rather than run standalone. Running it locally is still useful to confirm the image and inspect the available flags:

$ docker run --rm dhi.io/populator-controller:<tag> --help

Outside a cluster the controller does not do useful work, and it does not exit on its own:

• With no populator image variable set, it logs a warning for each migration source it is skipping and then blocks indefinitely without starting any reconciler. Stop it with docker stop, or run it with --rm -it so you can interrupt it.
• Once a populator image variable is set, it starts that reconciler, fails to build a cluster configuration, and exits with a fatal Failed to create config message.

Both behaviors match the upstream image and are expected outside a cluster.

Select which migration sources to reconcile

The controller starts one reconciler per source, and only for sources whose populator image variable is set. Any source whose variable is missing is skipped with a warning at startup.

Each active reconciler serves Prometheus metrics on its own port: oVirt on 8080, OpenStack on 8081, and vSphere copy offload on 8082. The metrics path defaults to /metrics and can be changed with --metrics-path.

The controller also reads the following variables to size the populator pods it creates: POPULATOR_CONTAINER_LIMITS_CPU, POPULATOR_CONTAINER_LIMITS_MEMORY, POPULATOR_CONTAINER_REQUESTS_CPU, and POPULATOR_CONTAINER_REQUESTS_MEMORY.

Run in a cluster

In a cluster, give the pod a service account that can read PersistentVolumeClaims, PersistentVolumes, Pods, and StorageClasses, and can watch and update the Forklift volume populator custom resources. The controller then creates a prime-<pvc-uid> PersistentVolumeClaim and a populate-<pvc-uid> pod for each PersistentVolumeClaim whose dataSourceRef points at one of those custom resources.

Note that a StorageClass using WaitForFirstConsumer binding causes the controller to wait until a node is selected before creating the populator pod. This is upstream behavior and applies equally to the non-hardened image.

Non-hardened images vs. Docker Hardened Images

The entry point, command, and working directory match the upstream image, so swapping the image reference is the only change a Forklift deployment needs. Two differences are worth knowing about first.

FIPS

Upstream builds its default image with the strictfipsruntime build tag and GOEXPERIMENT=strictfipsruntime. The runtime variant of this hardened image uses standard Go cryptography instead, so replacing the upstream image with a non-FIPS tag changes the controller's cryptographic posture. If you rely on the upstream FIPS build, use a tag with the -fips suffix.

Nonroot user

The upstream image runs as root. The runtime variant of this hardened image runs as the nonroot user, and the controller still works unchanged: it writes no files, and its metrics listeners bind ports 8080, 8081, and 8082, all above the privileged range. The Forklift operator's populator controller Deployment sets no securityContext, so no manifest change is required to accommodate the different user.

Image variants

Docker Hardened Images come in different variants depending on their intended use. Image variants are identified by their tag.

• Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:

  • Run as a nonroot user
  • Do not include a shell or a package manager
  • Contain only the minimal set of libraries needed to run the app

• Build-time variants typically include dev in the tag name and are intended for use in the first stage of a multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:

  • Run as the root user
  • Include a shell and package manager
  • Are used to build or compile applications

• FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure cryptographic operations. For example, usage of MD5 fails in FIPS variants.

To view the image variants and get more information about them, select the Tags tab for this repository, and then select a tag.

Migrate to a Docker Hardened Image

To migrate your application to a Docker Hardened Image, you must update your Dockerfile. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing Dockerfile to a Docker Hardened Image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.

The following steps outline the general migration process.

1. Find hardened images for your app.

   A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs.

2. Update the base image in your Dockerfile.

   Update the base image in your application's Dockerfile to the hardened image you found in the previous step. For framework images, this is typically going to be an image tagged as dev because it has the tools needed to install packages and dependencies.

3. For multi-stage Dockerfiles, update the runtime image in your Dockerfile.

   To ensure that your final image is as minimal as possible, you should use a multi-stage build. All stages in your Dockerfile should use a hardened image. While intermediary stages will typically use images tagged as dev, your final runtime stage should use a non-dev image variant.

4. Install additional packages

   Docker Hardened Images contain minimal packages in order to reduce the potential attack surface. You may need to install additional packages in your Dockerfile. Inspect the image variants to identify which packages are already installed.

   Only images tagged as dev typically have package managers. You should use a multi-stage Dockerfile to install the packages. Install the packages in the build stage that uses a dev image. Then, if needed, copy any necessary artifacts to the runtime stage that uses a non-dev image.

   For Alpine-based images, you can use apk to install packages. For Debian-based images, you can use apt-get to install packages.

Troubleshooting migration

The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.

General debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Docker Hardened Images is to use Docker Debug⁠ to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.

Permissions

By default image variants intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as the nonroot user can access them.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. To avoid issues, configure your application to listen on port 1025 or higher inside the container, even if you map it to a lower port on the host. For example, docker run -p 80:8080 my-image will work because the port inside the container is 8080, and docker run -p 80:81 my-image won't work because the port inside the container is 81.

No shell

By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers with no shell.

Entry point

Docker Hardened Images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Use docker inspect to inspect entry points for Docker Hardened Images and update your Dockerfile if necessary.