Testing Containers

These containers are used to test my ansible project. They are packages managed with minimal changes. I use SSH to at the transport. The idea is to use the same transport and system management tools to minimized the difference between real and virtual.

Purpose

Minimal base images for testing Ansible roles with Molecule. Each container provides:

• Python 3 - For Ansible
• OpenSSH - Key-based authentication
• systemd - For service management
• lsof & ps - Process utilities for debugging
• Factory defaults - Stock OS configuration, updated packages

Available Images

# Pull from GitHub Container Registry
podman pull ghcr.io/jackaltx/testing-containers/debian-ssh:12
podman pull ghcr.io/jackaltx/testing-containers/debian-ssh:13
podman pull ghcr.io/jackaltx/testing-containers/rocky-ssh:9
podman pull ghcr.io/jackaltx/testing-containers/rocky-ssh:10
podman pull ghcr.io/jackaltx/testing-containers/ubuntu-ssh:24

Image	Base	Package Manager
debian-ssh:12	debian:12	apt
debian-ssh:13	debian:13	apt
rocky-ssh:9	rockylinux:9	dnf
rocky-ssh:10	rockylinux:10	dnf
ubuntu-ssh:24	ubuntu:24.04	apt

Quick Start

Note: check that port 2222 is available before using!

Helper Scripts

# Source registry credentials (GitHub or Gitea)
source ~/.secrets/testing-containers-registry.conf github
# or
source ~/.secrets/testing-containers-registry.conf gitea

# Run a container
./run-podman.sh -d debian -v 13

# SSH access (from another terminal)
ssh -p 2222 jackaltx@localhost

# Clean up
./cleanup-podman.sh

Manual Container Execution

# Run container from GitHub
podman run -d \
    --name test_container \
    --privileged \
    -v /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:rw \
    -p 2222:22 \
    ghcr.io/jackaltx/testing-containers/debian-ssh:12 \
    /sbin/init

# SSH access
ssh -p 2222 jackaltx@localhost

Registry Configuration

Create ~/.secrets/testing-containers-registry.conf:

# Testing Containers Registry Configuration
# Source this file before running build.sh or run-podman.sh
#
# Usage:
#   source ~/.secrets/testing-containers-registry.conf github
#   source ~/.secrets/testing-containers-registry.conf gitea

REGISTRY_PROFILE="${1:-github}"

# Common config
export SSH_KEY=$(cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub)
export REGISTRY_USER="your-username"
export REGISTRY_REPO="testing-containers"

# Profile-specific config
case "$REGISTRY_PROFILE" in
    github|gh)
        export REGISTRY_HOST="ghcr.io"
        export CONTAINER_TOKEN="ghp_YourGitHubTokenHere"
        echo "✓ Configured for GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io)"
        ;;
    gitea|lab)
        export REGISTRY_HOST="gitea.example.com"
        export CONTAINER_TOKEN="YourGiteaTokenHere"
        echo "✓ Configured for Gitea Registry (gitea.example.com)"
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Error: Invalid registry profile '$REGISTRY_PROFILE'"
        echo "Usage: source ~/.secrets/testing-containers-registry.conf [github|gitea]"
        return 1
        ;;
esac

# Display current config
echo "  Registry: $REGISTRY_HOST"
echo "  User: $REGISTRY_USER"
echo "  Repo: $REGISTRY_REPO"

Important:

• Never commit this file to git
• Use GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT) with write:packages scope
• Use Gitea Application Token with package write permissions
• Store in ~/.secrets/ directory (outside repository)

Building Images

Build and Push to Registry

# Source credentials first
source ~/.secrets/testing-containers-registry.conf github

# Build specific version
./build.sh -d debian -v 12
./build.sh -d debian -v 13
./build.sh -d rocky -v 9
./build.sh -d ubuntu -v 24

Build for Gitea

# Source Gitea credentials
source ~/.secrets/testing-containers-registry.conf gitea

# Build and push to Gitea
./build.sh -d debian -v 13

Molecule Integration

# molecule.yml
platforms:
  - name: instance
    image: ghcr.io/jackaltx/testing-containers/debian-ssh:12
    privileged: true
    volumes:
      - /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:rw
    command: /sbin/init

Development

Repository Structure

testing-containers/
├── debian/
│   └── Containerfile          # Unified for Debian & Ubuntu
├── rocky/
│   └── Containerfile          # Rocky-specific
├── build.sh                   # Build & push images
├── run-podman.sh              # Test containers locally
├── cleanup-podman.sh          # Remove test containers
└── README.md

Adding New Versions

1. Update base image version in Containerfile ARG
2. Build with new version: ./build.sh -d debian -v 14
3. Test locally: ./run-podman.sh -d debian -v 14

Design Philosophy

Keep it minimal. These are factory-default containers for testing:

• No configuration management tools
• No monitoring agents
• No custom configurations
• Just stock OS + SSH + Python + systemd

This ensures consistent, predictable testing environments.

Troubleshooting

Authentication Errors

If you see "unauthorized" errors when pulling images:

# Make sure you've sourced the registry config
source ~/.secrets/testing-containers-registry.conf github

# Or for private Gitea registry
source ~/.secrets/testing-containers-registry.conf gitea

Port Already in Use

If port 2222 is already in use:

# Use custom port
LPORT=2223 ./run-podman.sh -d debian -v 13
ssh -p 2223 jackaltx@localhost

Container Won't Start

Check that systemd is running:

podman exec test_container systemctl is-active sshd

License

See LICENSE file.