Configure Incus for Docker

With this guide you will learn how to make Docker run inside an lxc container using Incus. This uses new functionality in ZFS and Incus (originally introduced in LXD 5.17). ZFS 2.2 introduced Linux container support for overlayfs. I have always had issues with running docker inside LXC (probably my own lack of understanding) but with this it works perfectly.

Requirements

• You followed my guide for configuring Incus on Debian with ZFS 2.2

Create Container

I am creating a container named docker using the Debian Bookworm image. This command also sets the necessary configuration for allowing nesting.

incus launch images:debian/12 docker -c security.nesting=true -c security.syscalls.intercept.mknod=true -c security.syscalls.intercept.setxattr=true

Configure ZFS Pool Delegation

The delegation of ZFS is done on the volume for the container. I stop the container first because you will need to restart it afterwards anyway.

incus stop docker
incus storage volume set default container/docker zfs.delegate=true
incus start docker

For reference it works like incus storage volume set <storage name> container/<container name> zfs.delegate=true

Install Docker in the Container

Now you can install Docker in the container and have fun with Docker.