Custom container doesn't launch systemd

[HQJaTu]

Quite soon after moving from VMs to containers, I started crafting my own images. That way notebooks have all the necessary libraries already there and no need to do any Pipping/installing in the notebook.

As requirements get more complex, now I'm at the point where I really really need the container to have proper systemd init running.

Databricks Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS standard container does that, there is systemd with all the bells/whistles that come with that. For obvious reasons, when defining a custom container no init is being run. Instead I have /bin/bash as PID 1.

Any ideas on how to have systemd init and custom container image?

[Debayan]

Hi @Jari Turkia​ , Please check if this helps: https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2019/04/24/how-to-run-systemd-in-a-container#other_cool_features_...

Also, you can run ubuntu /redhat linux OS inside containers which will have systems by default and modify it as per your needs?

[HQJaTu]

Databricks uses LXC as container platform. Howevr, the problem is best described in Podman manual page at https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/docs/source/markdown/options/systemd.md.

Without LXC doing some ground work first by mounting tmpfs, running systemd init as PID 1 isn't possible. This can easily be achieved on a personal workstation. Doing the same on Databricks isn't possible as I understand it and that's the reason I asked.

To repeat: This functionality exists if choosing to run Databricks provided container.