Create Podman Machine

Before using the services available in Podman AI Lab, a Podman machine needs to be set up to provide CPU, memory, and storage resources. In this case, a virtualized container instance on the desktop or laptop hardware.

If the Podman machine is not running, you will see the following message in most AI Lab resources.

podman machine

Initialize and Start Podman

To start working with containers, Podman needs to be initialized.

From the Podman Desktop dashboard:

  • Ensure the Podman Extension is now installed from the extensions menu.

  • Start the extension and verify it is active

From this same menu you can also start the Podman machine, which will create a container running virtually to host the resources needed to run the Podman AI resources.

podman extention
We can start the Podman machine by clicking play, this will create a Podman machine running without customizing the resources needed to run AI Models. This machine is optimized to run containers and micro service applications, and is NOT properly sized to host the resources needed for AI Model inference in Podman AI Lab. Instead use the customized Podman machine launching instructions below.

Create a custom Podman Instance

In order to host AI Models, we are going to need a container with a minimum of 4 vCPUs, 5Gb of memory, and 10GB of storage space. For best performance during the lab, a podman machine with 5 vCPUs, 12GB of memory, and 20GB of storage is recommended.

Open Podman Desktop dashboard.

Click on "Settings" from the navigation menu (it’s the gear icon at the bottom left).

create podman machine

Click Create new Podman machine (the button may show as "Create New"). If a machine is already running, stop and delete the machine. Then click "Create New".

  1. Optionally change the machine name if you plan to host multiple AI applications at once.

  2. For the vCPUs, you can leave the default of 5.

  3. Change the memory to at least 8GB (12-16GB is recommended if possible).

  4. For the drive space, reduce the amount to 20-40GB (this is not where downloaded models are stored).

  5. Leave the defaults for the other options.

  6. Click "Create".

config podman machine

It should take a short time for the Podman machine to become ready, which is indicated by the resource meters and "Running" under the machine name.

running podman machine

With our compute resources ready to go, Now is time to get working with AI.

Let’s being to explore the features of Podman AI Lab.