apache-polaris-fips

packaged by Chainguard

Chainguard Container for apache-polaris-fips

FIPS-enabled Wolfi-based container image for Apache Polaris, an open source catalog for Apache Iceberg.

Chainguard Containers are regularly-updated, secure-by-default container images.

Download this Container Image

For those with access, this container image is available on cgr.dev:

docker pull cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/apache-polaris-fips:latest

Be sure to replace the ORGANIZATION placeholder with the name used for your organization's private repository within the Chainguard Registry.

Compatibility Notes

Chainguard's apache-polaris-fips container image is comparable to the upstream apache/polaris image, with the following differences:

• Like all other Chainguard Containers, it features a stripped down, minimal design and has few-to-zero CVEs.
• It is built on Chainguard OS rather than the Red Hat UBI 9 OpenJDK runtime, so the JBoss run-java.sh launcher and the /opt/jboss module tree are not present. Like upstream the image declares no entrypoint; its Cmd runs java -jar quarkus-run.jar with the working directory set to /deployments — the directory run-java.sh cds into upstream, and the one Quarkus resolves config/application.properties against. Upstream's declared WorkingDir is /home/polaris, but the JVM never actually runs there. Environment variables interpreted only by run-java.sh, such as JAVA_OPTS_APPEND and AB_JOLOKIA_OFF, have no effect. The container JVM tuning that launcher applies is preserved directly in JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS (-XX:MaxRAMPercentage=80.0, -XX:+UseParallelGC, -XX:MinHeapFreeRatio=10, -XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=20, -XX:GCTimeRatio=4, -XX:AdaptiveSizePolicyWeight=90, -XX:+ExitOnOutOfMemoryError), so heap sizing and out-of-memory behaviour match upstream. Override that variable to pass your own JVM flags, keeping in mind it replaces those defaults.
• It runs as the unprivileged polaris user (uid 10000, gid 10001), matching upstream, so the Apache Polaris Helm chart works unmodified.
• It includes busybox but no package manager. busybox is required, not incidental: Iceberg's HadoopFileIO shells out to chmod and /bin/ls whenever a catalog writes table metadata to a file:// warehouse, so without it every table create against FILE storage fails. Use the -dev variant if you need a fuller userspace.

The Quarkus fast-jar layout under /deployments (quarkus-run.jar, lib/, app/, quarkus/), the exposed ports, and the configuration surface are unchanged, so existing deployments and Helm values carry over.

FIPS Support

The apache-polaris-fips Chainguard Image ships with a validated redistribution of OpenSSL's FIPS provider module. For more on FIPS support in Chainguard Images, consult the guide on FIPS-enabled Chainguard Images on Chainguard Academy.

Two consequences are worth knowing before you deploy, both covered under Configuration: JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS must keep its BouncyCastle FIPS flags, and any keystore or truststore you supply must be in BCFKS format.

Prerequisites

Apache Polaris needs a persistence backend and a bootstrapped realm before it will serve requests. For anything beyond a smoke test, provision a PostgreSQL database and bootstrap it with the Polaris Admin Tool. The in-memory persistence used in the examples below is for evaluation only, and it discards every catalog when the container stops.

Getting Started

Start a catalog server with in-memory persistence. POLARIS_BOOTSTRAP_CREDENTIALS makes Polaris bootstrap the realm and create the root principal on startup, which is what lets you obtain a token straight away:

docker run --rm -p 8181:8181 -p 8182:8182 \
  -e POLARIS_BOOTSTRAP_CREDENTIALS=POLARIS,root,s3cr3t \
  cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/apache-polaris-fips:latest

Polaris serves its APIs on 8181 and its health and metrics endpoints on the management port 8182:

curl -fsS http://localhost:8182/q/health/ready

Request an OAuth2 token for the bootstrapped principal and call the management API with it:

TOKEN=$(curl -fsS http://localhost:8181/api/catalog/v1/oauth/tokens \
  --user root:s3cr3t \
  -d grant_type=client_credentials \
  -d scope=PRINCIPAL_ROLE:ALL | jq -r .access_token)

curl -fsS http://localhost:8181/api/management/v1/catalogs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"

Iceberg engines connect to the REST catalog at http://localhost:8181/api/catalog, using the catalog name as the warehouse.

Helm

The upstream chart works against this image; point it at your organization's repository:

helm repo add polaris https://downloads.apache.org/polaris/helm-chart
helm install polaris polaris/polaris \
  --set image.repository=cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/apache-polaris-fips \
  --set image.tag=latest

Configuration

Polaris is a Quarkus application, so every setting can be supplied as a system property, an environment variable, or an application.properties file. Because the image's working directory is /deployments, Quarkus picks up /deployments/config/application.properties automatically — the same path the Helm chart mounts its ConfigMap into.

A minimal production-shaped configuration switches persistence to PostgreSQL and supplies the token broker key pair rather than letting Polaris generate an ephemeral one, so that tokens stay valid across restarts and replicas:

# /deployments/config/application.properties
polaris.persistence.type=relational-jdbc
quarkus.datasource.jdbc.url=jdbc:postgresql://postgres:5432/polaris
polaris.authentication.token-broker.type=rsa-key-pair
polaris.authentication.token-broker.rsa-key-pair.public-key-file=/deployments/config/public.pem
polaris.authentication.token-broker.rsa-key-pair.private-key-file=/deployments/config/private.pem

Mount it with -v ./config:/deployments/config:ro. Polaris runs production readiness checks at startup and refuses to boot when it finds a severe issue, such as an insecure storage type, so a configuration that starts is one that has already been vetted.

Preserving the BouncyCastle FIPS flags

JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS puts the BouncyCastle FIPS modules on the JVM module path and selects the FIPS truststore type. java -jar gives the JVM no classpath of its own, so if you override this variable, preserve both flags — otherwise the JVM starts with no usable security provider:

JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=--module-path=/usr/share/java/bouncycastle-fips -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStoreType=FIPS

Serving TLS from a BCFKS keystore

Keystores and truststores must be in BCFKS format, which only the BouncyCastle FIPS provider can read. Pick a store password first — keytool requires at least 6 characters and will fail with Key password must be at least 6 characters otherwise — then create the keystore with the keytool shipped in the image:

export KEYSTORE_PASSWORD='replace-with-a-strong-password'

docker run --rm -v "$PWD/tls:/tls" --entrypoint keytool \
  cgr.dev/ORGANIZATION/apache-polaris-fips:latest \
  -keystore /tls/keystore.bcfks -storetype BCFKS -providername BCFIPS \
  -alias polaris -genkeypair -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -sigalg SHA256withRSA \
  -dname CN=localhost -storepass "$KEYSTORE_PASSWORD" -keypass "$KEYSTORE_PASSWORD"

Then point Polaris' HTTPS listener at it:

# /deployments/config/application.properties
quarkus.http.ssl-port=8443
quarkus.http.ssl.certificate.key-store-file=/tls/keystore.bcfks
quarkus.http.ssl.certificate.key-store-file-type=BCFKS
quarkus.http.ssl.certificate.key-store-password=...

Documentation and Resources

• Apache Polaris documentation
• Configuration reference
• Configuring Polaris for production
• Helm chart documentation
• GitHub repository

What are Chainguard Containers?

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