Running Containers on a Resource Constrained Embedded Device
summary
Shows how to run containers on a 32‑bit single‑core router with 792 MHz CPU, 256 MB RAM and 256 MB flash by using lxc instead of Docker (Docker is too big), mounting host directories (/bin /lib /sbin /usr/bin /usr/lib /var/run) and running containers in RAM or flash. Demonstrates a 359‑byte container plus libraries, a musl linker trick (invoke LD to run foreign binaries like Raspbian's ls), and squeezing a full Java/Tomcat runtime (~100 MB) onto the device.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Resource constrained devices
- 2:55Why use them
- 4:22What are containers and why they matter
- 6:07Benefits on tiny devices
- 8:19Container resource needs
- 9:23Running containers on embedded
- 12:42Minimizing container size
- 17:40Linker and C libraries
- 20:10Live container demo
- 34:18Rules for constrained devices
- 35:04Q&A
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