An Ansible role to configure install and configure a Docker daemon running as a non-root user.

Do not use any of this without first testing in a non-operational environment.

Rootless mode allows running the Docker daemon and containers as a non-root user to mitigate potential vulnerabilities in the daemon and the container runtime. (docker)

Note There is a SLSA artifact present under the slsa action workflow for verification.

---
roles:
  - name: konstruktoid.docker_rootless
    version: v1.10.0
    src: https://github.com/konstruktoid/ansible-role-docker-rootless.git
    scm: git

---
- hosts: all
  any_errors_fatal: true
  tasks:
    - name: Include the konstruktoid.docker_rootless role
      ansible.builtin.import_role:
        name: konstruktoid.docker_rootless

---
configure_sysctl: true
create_docker_user: true
install_dependencies: true

docker_arch: "{{ ansible_facts.architecture }}"
docker_add_alias: true
docker_allow_ping: false
docker_allow_privileged_ports: false
docker_compose: false
docker_compose_release: v5.0.0
docker_compose_url: https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download
docker_daemon_json_template: daemon.json.j2
docker_driver_network: slirp4netns
docker_driver_port: builtin
docker_release: 29.1.3
docker_repository_template: docker.repo.j2
docker_rootful_enabled: false
docker_rootful: false
docker_rootful_opts: false
docker_rootful_service_template: docker_rootful.service.j2
docker_rootless_script_template: docker_rootless.sh.j2
docker_rootless_service_template: docker_rootless.service.j2
docker_service_restart: true
docker_unattended_upgrades: false
docker_url: "https://download.docker.com/linux/static/stable/{{ docker_arch }}"
docker_user_bashrc: false
docker_user: dockeruser
shasums:
  docker_release:
    aarch64: 2219f3ac48727d8c5546b13d5d271a58856188ecb8ff1f71f9e2f9aefde3ea76
    x86_64: c019c608ba2bb009dd673f3230e4d743f36a78d36166c6c2444c05d0aa9ff0d9
  docker_rootless_release:
    aarch64: 50fca361239fda2b89a774abf658b32e36460486cf00682a6a020330f6e159b2
    x86_64: 32dc3dd0d8b512ccf30a7efe84d360b5ade65ac4fec92a2a5ad0fe791da6ab0d
  docker_compose_release:
    aarch64: d68ba7053066a44a51ee33b7dcdc106d8c8745eb0eaf46dc59fbbeb22ec46392
    x86_64: 5091bac5729ce968c602d157c2f0b959b7b367d4efb70aa864eb9ae78eebe13e

Before using this role you first have to decide if you want to install Docker using the packages available to the distribution, also known as the "rootful" installation since it requires root permissions and installs the upstream Docker daemon or if you want to download the static binaries and do a manual install.

If you run the role on a system without having root permissions, you will need to set configure_sysctl: false, create_docker_user: false and install_dependencies: false and ensure that the system has the required dependencies installed and the docker user created beforehand.

If you set docker_rootful: false you will download the static binaries and do a manual install, not requiring any root permissions.

If docker_rootful: true, then docker_rootful_enabled will decide if the daemon should be enabled as a service or not.

docker_service_restart will restart the rootless service after the Docker binaries has been extracted. This may affect any running containers.

Using docker_rootful: true and docker_rootful_enabled: true, will result in a standard Docker installation, with an additional Docker daemon, running as a non-root user.

Note that Debian 10 and earlier requires docker_rootful: false due to missing dependencies.

The docker_url, docker_release, docker_compose_url and docker_compose_release variables define where you find the relevant binaries and which version you should use when doing a manual installation.

You define the name of the Docker user that will be created with the docker_user variable. This user will download and install the binaries if docker_rootful: false or else the user will be the one running the rootless installation script and starting a isolated daemon.

Note that the sole purpose of the docker_user is to run the Docker daemon and related containers, and not for system administration or used as a regular user.

docker_release_shasum, docker_release_rootless_shasum and docker_compose_release_shasum are used to verify the files when downloaded using the get_url module. The docker_release_shasum is used for the Docker .tgz file and docker_release_rootless_shasum for the docker-ce-rootless-extras package.

docker_rootful_opts is the options to apply to the Docker daemon if running in rootful mode, if unset the settings in docker_rootful_service_template will be used.

If docker_add_alias: true, then a docker alias will be added to either .bashrc or .bash_aliases of the Ansible user. If false, a shell script named docker_rootless.sh is created in the Ansible user home directory. This works as a substitute to the docker command so that the Ansible user can execute the rootless Docker installation from the docker_user.

If docker_compose: true, then the Docker compose plugin or docker-compose will be installed. docker_compose_arch are used to define the architecture of the docker-compose binary.

If docker_user_bashrc: true, a .bashrc with completion for the docker and docker compose command will be placed inside the docker_user home.

If docker_unattended_upgrades: true and the unattended-upgrades package is installed, the docker and docker-compose binaries will be updated automatically.

The docker_allow_privileged_ports variable configures if exposing privileged ports (< 1024) is allowed.

The docker_allow_ping variable configures if unprivileged users can open ICMP echo sockets. On some distributions, this is not allowed, and thereby containers cannot ping to the outside.

The docker_driver_network and docker_driver_port variables configure RootlessKit's network driver or port driver, respectively. This is useful for optimising network performance and necessary if source IP propagation is required. By default, the builtin port driver does not expose the actual source IP; instead, all connections appear to the container as originating from the Docker gateway (e.g. 172.19.0.1). Set docker_driver_port: slirp4netns to enable source IP propagation.

The variables named *_template are the locations of the templates in use, this to make it easier to replace them with custom ones.

The most important template is most likely docker_daemon_json_template: daemon.json.j2, which is the location of the Docker daemon.json configuration file template.

Running containers is not that much different from when a rootful Docker daemon is used, but you still need to become the unprivileged user and adapt any paths to the user working directores.

If docker_add_alias: true is used, the docker command will be available as usual for the Ansible user, too. Type alias in the shell to see the keyword configuration.

- name: Register Docker user info
  become: true
  ansible.builtin.user:
    name: "{{ docker_user }}"
  check_mode: true
  register: docker_user_info

- name: Example container block
  environment:
    XDG_RUNTIME_DIR: "/run/user/{{ docker_user_info.uid }}"
    PATH: "{{ docker_user_info.home }}/bin:{{ ansible_env.PATH }}"
    DOCKER_HOST: "unix:///run/user/{{ docker_user_info.uid }}/docker.sock"
  block:
    - name: Nginx container
      become: true
      become_user: "{{ docker_user }}"
      community.docker.docker_container:
        name: nginx
        image: konstruktoid/nginx
        state: started
        cap_drop: all
        capabilities:
          - chown
          - dac_override
          - net_bind_service
          - setgid
          - setuid
        pull: true
        hostname: "{{ ansible_nodename }}"
        container_default_behavior: compatibility

- name: Register Docker user info
  become: true
  ansible.builtin.user:
    name: "{{ docker_user }}"
  check_mode: true
  register: docker_user_info

- name: Example docker compose block
  become: true
  become_user: "{{ docker_user }}"
  environment:
    XDG_RUNTIME_DIR: /run/user/{{ docker_user_info.uid }}
    PATH: "{{ docker_user_info.home }}/bin:{{ ansible_env.PATH }}"
    DOCKER_HOST: "unix:///run/user/{{ docker_user_info.uid }}/docker.sock"
  block:
    - name: Install pip dependencies
      ansible.builtin.pip:
        name:
          - docker<7 # https://github.com/docker/docker-py/issues/3194
          - docker-compose

    - name: Create and start services
      community.docker.docker_compose:
        project_src: /var/tmp/
        files: "{{ docker_user }}-docker-compose.yml"
      register: compose_output

If Ansible Molecule with the vagrant plugin and related software is installed, running molecule test is supported.

tox -l will list all available tox test environments.

Do you want to contribute? Great! Contributions are always youlcome, no matter how large or small. If you found something odd, feel free to submit a issue, improve the code by creating a pull request, or by sponsoring this project.

Apache License Version 2.0

https://github.com/konstruktoid