STINGAR System - RHEL / Rocky / AlmaLinux Installation

RedHat-family hosts use Podman as the container runtime. The quickstart installs Podman, the Docker-compatibility shim (podman-docker), and the Compose V2 plugin for native podman compose (validated on Rocky Linux 8.9 and 9.3).

Install prerequisites

Log onto the server as the STINGAR administrative user (with sudo). Clone the STINGAR quickstart repository, then run:

cd stingar
sudo ./scripts/install_prerequisites.sh

This installs:

  • podman and podman-docker
  • Docker Compose V2 plugin at /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose (invoked as podman compose)
  • Enables podman.socket for Docker API compatibility (on systemd hosts)

The install script uses curl-minimal when present (UBI 9 and other minimal images ship this instead of the full curl package).

The script writes .stingar-runtime in the quickstart directory.

IMPORTANT: Log out and back in after installation if you also use Docker group membership on hybrid hosts.

Verify Podman and Compose

podman --version
podman compose version
podman ps

Expected: Podman responds without errors; podman compose version reports Docker Compose v2.x; podman ps shows an empty list or running containers.

Do not rely on pip install podman-compose with system Python 3.6 on RHEL 8 — current releases require Python 3.8+. The quickstart uses native podman compose instead.

Firewall and SELinux

  • Open ports 80, 443, and 24224 (TCP/UDP) in firewalld if enabled.
  • STINGAR quickstart generates compose files with SELinux volume labels (:Z) appropriate for Podman.

Auto-update limitation

In-app automated updates are not supported on Podman admin installs in v2.4. The quickstart sets UPDATE_SERVICE_ENABLED=false in stingar.env. Upgrade manually:

./scripts/compose.sh pull
./scripts/compose.sh up -d

See the User Guide upgrading page for details.

Docker on RHEL instead of Podman

To force Docker on a RedHat host (not recommended for production RHEL):

CONTAINER_RUNTIME=docker sudo ./scripts/install_prerequisites.sh

You must install Docker CE yourself; the prerequisite script only automates Docker on Debian/Ubuntu.

For legacy manual Podman workarounds (rootless, high ports), see Alternative Installation Methods.