How to Change Podman Storage Location – 3 Easy Methods

Podman is a powerful container engine that manages and runs the container workload. Podman uses the container image and the storage for running containers and management for the Podman storage is crucial.

Let’s understand the “Change Podman Storage Location” in the blog to simply the Podman storage and customizing for your requirement in easy methods with troubleshooting.

Understanding Podman Storage

Podman uses the configuration file to manage the various aspects of the container lifecycle and allows you to modify the settings that fit your needs.

Podman Container Configuration File: 5 Hidden Hacks

Podman Storage Configuration File

Podman utilizes the storage.conf file to manage the storage-related configuration on the below location:

1. /etc/containers/storage.conf

2. $HOME/.config/containers/storage.conf

You can check the storage.conf to check the default storage location:

[storage]
driver = "overlay"
runroot = "/run/containers/storage"
graphroot = "/var/lib/containers/storage"

By default, Podman stores images in:

• /var/lib/containers for the root users
• $HOME/.local/share/containers/storage/ for the standard users

Why Change Podman Storage Location?

In most common cases you don’t need to change the Podman storage location but there are several reasons to modify the Podman storage:

1. Limited Disk Space Issue

This can be troublesome if you run out of space and get the error “No Space Left On Device” and it’s not only related to Podman but Docker users also face a similar issue. I wrote about the fix if you’re already facing the issue:

Most Accurate Fix “No Space Left On Device” In Docker

A better way to fix this is to allocate more storage capacity or change the Podman storage location.

2. Performance Optimization

We have fast and slow storage such as SSD and HDD with various pros and cons. Sometimes the application needs faster storage options and high I/O ( Input/Output ) performance and SSD is the best choice for the requirement.

Container applications such as Databases or Kafka can get greater performance optimization by using faster storage options.

You can fix this by changing the Podman storage location and strategically planning to use faster storage ( SSD ) for critical and HDD for normal applications.

Step-by-Step Guide to Configure Podman Storage

Podman offers the three main ways to manage and change Podman storage location:

1. System-Wide Change Podman Storage Location

This approach is a more general and system-wide modification of the Podman storage location.

If you’re the administrator of the system you can follow the guide:

1. Edit the file /usr/share/containers/storage.conf
2. storage.conf use the TOML style configuration syntax, locate the entries for runroot and graphroot
3. Update the values with the new storage location.

vi /usr/share/containers/storage.conf

---
[storage]
driver = "overlay"
runroot = "/run/containers/storage"
graphroot = "/var/lib/containers/storage"
---

Here’s how to do that:

semanage fcontext -a -e /var/lib/containers/storage /path/to/new/storage
restorecon -R -v /path/to/new/storage

2. User-Specific Change Podman Storage Location

If want to keep the system-wide Podman configuration unaffected and only change for the specific user, this approach is right for you. You can create the user-specific configuration to change the Podman storage location:

1. Create the file under the location ~/.config/containers/storage.conf to your HOMEDIR
2. You can also copy the system-wide configuration and later modify the same.
3. Add the runroot and graphroot entries for the storage section

mkdir -p ~/.config/containers/

cp /usr/share/containers/storage.conf ~/.config/containers/storage.conf

---
[storage]
driver = "overlay"
runroot = "/run/user/$UID/run"
graphroot = "/path/to/new/storage"
---

3. Environment Variable Way

Podman supports the environment variable to override the default Podman storage configuration. You can create the project-specific storage.conf and set the value for the CONTAINERS_STORAGE_CONF and Podman uses the configuration from the variable rather than default.

export CONTAINERS_STORAGE_CONF=/path/to/new/stroage.conf

Understand that you still need to create the storage.conf file with the new path for the Podman storage location. Environment variables prevent the changes to system-wide or user-specific changes to Podman.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Modifying the Podman storage configuration will not migrate the content such as containers and image data. You need additional steps to migrate that.

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How to Migrate Existing Podman Storage Location?

Migrating the existing storage data can be tricky so I strongly advise you to take a backup of your data before moving them. Once you take the backup in a safe place you can either use the podman volume import/export or bind mount method.

How to Verify the Change Podman Storage Location

Once everything is in place it’s time to test and verify the changes. You can quickly verify the active configuration with a simple podman info command:

podman info

Once you run the above command Podman will give detailed output, look for the storage-related configuration from here you can verify if the configuration is changed successfully.

Change Podman Storage Location - podman info

If you encounter an issue while running the container after changing the Podman storage location check the common troubleshooting guide.

Common Errors and Troubleshooting

I changed the storage location, but it’s not using the new directories

1. Double-check the configuration file that it’s modified and location is correct:**
   • /etc/containers/storage.conf for system-wide changes
   • ~/.config/containers/storage.conf for user-specific
2. Verify the path you specified in the configuration exists and accessible by Podman**
3. Restart the Podman to check the changes take effect.

After modifying storage locations, I’m facing permission errors

Verify the Podman has the necessary permission to access the storage, if needed adjust the permission with chown chmod commands.

If you updated the graphroot settings you need to update the SELinux label, check the guide mentioned in the blog for adding that.

How can I revert to the default storage locations if something goes wrong?

Revert is simple, modify the system-wide or the user-specific stroage.conf file and update the graphroot and runroot value to the default one.

I advise you to take a backup of the configuration file before any modification. That way, you can easily restore it if something goes wrong.

Additional Links

Podman Container Configuration File: 5 Hidden Hacks

Podman Pull Docker Image: Easier Than You Think!

Podman Container Image Update: Secure them in Seconds!

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