=== Containers & FreeBSD: Pot, Potluck & Potman

Links: +
link:https://pot.pizzamig.dev[Pot on github] URL: link:https://github.com/pizzamig/pot[https://github.com/pizzamig/pot] +
link:https://potluck.honeyguide.net/[Potluck Repository & Project] URL: link:https://potluck.honeyguide.net/[https://potluck.honeyguide.net/] +
link:https://github.com/hny-gd/potluck[Potluck on github] URL: link:https://github.com/hny-gd/potluck[https://github.com/hny-gd/potluck] +
link:https://github.com/grembo/potman[Potman on github] URL: link:https://github.com/grembo/potman[https://github.com/grembo/potman]

Contact: Luca Pizzamiglio (Pot) <pizzamig@freebsd.org> +
Contact: Stephan Lichtenauer (Potluck) <sl@honeyguide.eu> +
Contact: Michael Gmelin (Potman) <grembo@FreeBSD.org>

Pot is a jail management tool that link:https://www.freebsd.org/news/status/report-2020-01-2020-03/#pot-and-the-nomad-pot-driver[also supports orchestration through Nomad].

In the last quarter, a new release link:https://github.com/pizzamig/pot/releases/tag/0.13.0[0.13.0] with a number of major new features was made available. +
link:https://github.com/pizzamig/pot/issues/148[Layered images] allow a split into a foundation image component that only changes seldom and that e.g. contains the basic jail and packages and a "leaf" image component on top with potentially small additions that might change more frequently, like software built in a CI pipeline. Since it is not the complete image that has to be rebuilt each time, image creation and distribution can be sped up immensely. +
Also a link:https://github.com/pizzamig/pot/issues/162[copy-out command] has been included where the container state that was initialised from within the container can be made persistent and reinjected into additional containers afterwards.   

Potluck aims to be to FreeBSD and Pot what Dockerhub is to Linux and Docker: a repository of Pot flavours and complete container images for usage with Pot and in many cases Nomad.

Here we had a busy quarter. Not only did we commit a number of new images like link:https://potluck.honeyguide.net/blog/nextcloud-nginx-nomad/[Nextcloud] which can be deployed via Nomad, but the images used to build the foundation of a virtual data center (link:https://potluck.honeyguide.net/blog/nomad-server/[Nomad], link:https://potluck.honeyguide.net/blog/consul/[Consul] and link:https://potluck.honeyguide.net/blog/vault/[Vault]) themselves have received major updates.

For these images, further improvements for even better security and reliability will likely be finished in the coming quarter. 

Also, we are aware that right now the advantages of the container approach as it is described in link:https://honeyguide.eu/posts/virtual-dc1/[Virtual DC Part I]/link:https://honeyguide.eu/posts/virtual-dc2/[Part II]/link:https://honeyguide.eu/posts/virtual-dc3/[Part III] are not yet obvious and transparent enough and also no longer completely up to date, so we plan to provide additional documentation as soon as we find the time to do so. 

Potman aims to simplify building Pot images with Vagrant and VirtualBox based on the Potluck approach, e.g. as part of a DevOps workflow for software development including testing and publishing them to a repository.

Here, not too much has happened over the last quarter but the current idea is to incorporate additional features in the medium to longer term to modularise and simplify the image build definitions and then utilise Potman in the Potluck library build process.

As always, feedback and patches are welcome.