Run netbootd in a docker container

[SR-G]

Just in case someone also needs to do it, here are my steps for running netbootd inside docker (it works flawlessly, once the "zerolog / journalD" has been disabled/removed).

Building the container.

Use this dockerfile docker build -t netbootd . :

FROM 	debian:bullseye-slim as BUILD

# Locally build netbootd in order to be able to remove the "journald" file, that won't be compliant with a basic debian parent/base image
# And we neet latest go version (manually installed, as bullseye otherwise still has go 1.15 by default)
RUN	apt-get update && apt-get install -y git curl && \
	curl -sLo /tmp/go.tar.gz https://go.dev/dl/go1.19.linux-amd64.tar.gz  && \
	tar xzvf /tmp/go.tar.gz && mv go /usr/local/ && \
	git clone https://github.com/DSpeichert/netbootd/ /opt/netbootd/ && \
	cd /opt/netbootd/ && rm -f journald_logger.go && \
	export GOROOT=/usr/local/go && \
	/usr/local/go/bin/go build 

FROM 	debian:bullseye-slim

WORKDIR /opt/netbootd/

VOLUME  /opt/netbootd/configs/
VOLUME  /opt/netbootd/images/
VOLUME  /opt/netbootd/manifests/

EXPOSE	6081
EXPOSE 	6080

CMD 	/opt/netbootd/netbootd --trace server -m /opt/netbootd/manifests/ --api-port 6081 --http-port 6080

COPY --from=BUILD /opt/netbootd/netbootd  /opt/netbootd/

Running the container

docker run -d --restart=unless-stopped --net=host -v $(pwd)/images/:/opt/netbootd/images/ -v $(pwd)/manifests/:/opt/netbootd/manifests/ -v $(pwd)/configs/:/opt/netbootd/configs/ --name netbootd netbootd

No need for the netbootd.yml file (but you can still add it with a mount point if needed, and adjust the CMD line from the dockerfile)

Local folders organisations

When launching the containers, the manifests and configs files are hosted on my side inside the host (for me, a home-made NAS), with that folder organisation :

.
├── configs
│   ├── flatcar-server-1
│   │   ├── flatcar.ign
│   │   ├── flatcar.yml
│   │   └── ssh
│   │       ├── ssh_host_dsa_key
│   │       ├── ssh_host_dsa_key.pub
│   │       ├── ssh_host_ecdsa_key
│   │       ├── ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
│   │       ├── ssh_host_ed25519_key
│   │       ├── ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
│   │       ├── ssh_host_rsa_key
│   │       └── ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
│   └── flatcar-server-2
│       ├── flatcar.ign
│       ├── flatcar.yml
│       └── ssh
│           ├── ssh_host_dsa_key
│           ├── ssh_host_dsa_key.pub
│           ├── ssh_host_ecdsa_key
│           ├── ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
│           ├── ssh_host_ed25519_key
│           ├── ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
│           ├── ssh_host_rsa_key
│           └── ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
├── images
│   ├── flatcar_production_pxe.vmlinuz
│   └── flatcar_production_pxe_image.cpio.gz
├── manifests
│   ├── flatcar-server-1.yml
│   └── flatcar-server-2.yml
└── rebuild-configs.sh

The rebuild-configs.sh is just there for the flatcar IGNITION files.

find configs/ -name "*.yml" | sort | while read F ; do
  N=$(echo "$F" | sed 's/yml/ign/')
  echo "Converting [$F] to [$N]"
  cat "$F" | docker run --rm -i ghcr.io/flatcar/ct:latest -platform packet --pretty --strict > "$N"
done

tree configs/

That's all.

[DSpeichert]

Hi @SR-G ,
Thanks for checking out the project. I can see how journald logging may not always work - I'll be glad to accept a PR to make it optional!