Podman and Buildah Advanced Training

Go beyond Dockerfiles with this advanced 2-day course focused on Buildah and Podman power features. Learn scripted image building, multi-architecture builds, OCI image internals, Skopeo operations, and advanced container management techniques.

Training Details

Duration	2 days (16 hours)
Level	Advanced
Delivery	In-person, Live online, Hybrid
Certification	N/A

Who Is This For?

• Container engineers building custom images at scale
• Platform teams managing container build infrastructure
• Developers needing multi-architecture container support
• Engineers optimizing container image pipelines

Learning Outcomes

After completing this training, participants will be able to:

• Build images with Buildah's scripting interface
• Create multi-architecture images with manifest lists
• Inspect and manipulate OCI images with Skopeo
• Optimize image layers and reduce image size
• Build images in CI environments without a daemon
• Implement advanced caching and build strategies

Detailed Agenda

Day 1: Buildah Deep Dive

Module 1: Buildah Scripting

• Buildah vs Dockerfile — when to use each
• Working containers and the mount command
• Scripted builds with buildah from, run, copy, commit
• Hands-on: Build images using Buildah CLI scripting

Module 2: Advanced Image Building

• Heredoc syntax in Containerfiles
• Build secrets and SSH mounts
• Cache mounts for package managers
• Hands-on: Optimize builds with advanced Containerfile features

Module 3: OCI Image Internals

• Image manifest and config specification
• Layer diffing and deduplication
• Image annotations and labels
• Hands-on: Inspect and modify image metadata with Buildah and Skopeo

Day 2: Multi-Arch and CI/CD

Module 4: Multi-Architecture Builds

• Platform emulation with QEMU
• Manifest lists and image indexes
• Native cross-compilation strategies
• Hands-on: Build and push multi-arch images for amd64 and arm64

Module 5: Skopeo Operations

• Copying images between registries
• Inspecting remote images without pulling
• Syncing and mirroring registries
• Hands-on: Mirror images across registries and inspect manifests

Module 6: Daemonless Builds in CI/CD

• Running Podman and Buildah in containers
• CI/CD integration (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins)
• Build caching strategies in CI
• Hands-on: Build a CI pipeline with Buildah for multi-arch images

Prerequisites

• Podman Fundamentals or equivalent Docker experience
• Comfortable with container concepts and Dockerfiles
• Basic shell scripting knowledge

Delivery Formats

Format	Description
In-Person	On-site at your company's location, hands-on with direct interaction
Live Online	Interactive virtual sessions with screen sharing and real-time labs
Hybrid	Combination of on-site and remote sessions, flexible scheduling

All formats include hands-on labs, course materials, and post-training support.