this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2025
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New server has been acquired. Debian 13 has been installed.

GS308EP switches have been acquired and installed.

Now, I'm working to migrate to the new machine. 3 1/2 years ago when I started futzing with Docker, I sorta followed guides and guessed, abused it trying to make it do things it wasn't designed for, and flipped switches I likely shouldn't have flipped, so the set up is more than a little shabby.

As a result, I'll likely end more redeploying than migrating the containers.

So rather than go forward with Docker blindly, I want to reassess whether I shouldn't look into Proxmox, LXC, or Podman instead of Docker, or maybe something else entirely?

Work is just about done dumping ESX for Nutanix, but both of those seem overkill for my needs.

Of course the forums for any of the solutions make their own out to be the best thing since sliced bread and the others useless, so I'm hoping to get a more nuanced answer here.

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[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Proxmox and Docker don't really do the same thing. They live in the same area, but the coverage is very different. You can always use docker when your host is running proxmox: either individually or in groups inside of an lxc, or all in w dedicated VM, or even natively on the same house if you prefer chaos. But you can't do the opposite: Sometimes you just need a VM. Maybe you only need a couple of devices, and you know they run on or are even designed for docker, then that's the better option. In all other cases, and when just getting started, proxmox is just the way more universal solution if you're only planning on having a single host (for now).

The management tools in proxmox are great. The community scripts are a fantastic resource and only work with proxmox. I would suggest you set it up natively, not on top of Debian though, even if that's already installed. Not the least of the reasons are to be able to use ZFS easily, including on on the boot partition (select that in the installer).

Finally, if you're gonna stick with docker, like others said: consider podman. That really does the same thing docker does, but it's fully open source. Arguably it's better in some areas, but on the flip side might, in occasion, require fiddling with something intended specifically for docker and using advanced setups.

Also there really is no wrong answer, either. And you can always change whatever you choose.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

Docker community edition is fully foss

I like Podman but In don't think foss is the driving factor in this case

[–] abeorch@friendica.ginestes.es 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

@Creat @JeanValjean Alot of apps seem to come with Docker images - can you use those with Podman?

[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes. That's basically the point. They call it a "drop in replacement", but last I used it manually there were some extra steps for what I wanted to do. To be clear: not for every thing you want to setup, just one if the things I read don't up required extra steps. But I also hear that those things have changed since then and it's mostly seamless now.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

It’ll never really be a perfect drop in replacement because Docker relies on its daemon for a lot of functionality and Podman is daemonless, so you have to work around that. But like you said it’s just a matter of learning how things work with Portman.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Docker images are OCI compliant and are agnostic of the container runtime you use.