Ubuntu and Python

Support
#1

Hello,

I’m new to Pulp. Had questions about implementation. Interested in the ubuntu (deb) and python plug ins. Does this implementation have to be containerized or can it be implemented straight on a linux host [using ubuntu]. What are the advantages/disadvantages of both if it can be implemented straight on a host vs container? Looking for the best plan of action or any other beneficial information in getting started.

Thank you in advance!

#2

Welcome!

Yes you can install Pulp on a bare host, but it is not a method we recommend as it requires some advance knowledge of how Pulp works and we currently don’t maintain any documentation on it. Our current support is around our images which we maintain docs for: https://pulpproject.org/pulp-oci-images/. Now some pros/cons of both:

OCI-Images

Pros:

  • Easy install on any system
  • Upgrades are handled by pulling the latest tag
  • Maintained by the Pulp team

Cons:

  • Changing plugins and their versions requires building your own custom images
  • Pulp images are large! 650 MB compressed, 1.6 GB on disk.
  • Management of the Pulp processes is dependent on the container tools used to run them. Things like storage, monitoring, scaling and running admin commands all go through your container tool of choice.

Bare Host Source Install

Pros

  • Complete control over what plugins and versions are installed
  • Install can be much smaller and faster if you build your own packages from source
  • Use any system/tool to manage the Pulp processes

Cons

  • Need to manage/create all the package dependencies/folders/files needed for Pulp. (We don’t have these documented but you could figure them out by reading our container files (https://github.com/pulp/pulp-oci-images/tree/latest/images))
  • Need to manage all the processes for Pulp, these include the API workers, the Content App workers, the Task workers, the Postgresql database, the reverse proxy and an optional Redis cache.
  • Harder to get support from the Pulp team. The images are our only supported method of install.

There’s probably lots more pros/cons, but I hope this gives a good overview of both.

2 Likes
#3

@jpjp From you post, I take it you are just getting started/trying things out, and you are Ubuntu based.

Given this, my opinionated recommendation is to install podman as your container runtime, and then use the Pulp single container. This is the easiest way to get to a working state and start trying things out. If you find later that you have requirements for advanced scenarios, you can transition to those scenarios then.

Installing podman on Ubuntu is as easy as: Podman Installation | Podman

And once you have that, you can continue with the pulp-oci-images docs for single container. Everything more complex than that will come with time and experience.

3 Likes
#4

Thank you for your detailed response! This helps so much. Will defintely look into the OCI images documentation. I appreciate your assistance.

#5

Thank you for your response! Will defintely look into podman and pulp-oci-images docs. I appreciate your assistance.