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When not to use Pantavisor

Pantavisor is a strong fit when you ship Linux devices in the field and want whole-device atomic updates, automatic rollback, and unified base/kernel/app management. It is not the right tool for every job. Being explicit about the boundaries is part of earning trust at PID 1.

Pantavisor is probably not for you if…​

  • Your target is not Linux. Pantavisor is the Linux init process and container runtime. Bare-metal MCUs, RTOS targets, and non-Linux systems are out of scope.
  • You are running containers on a server or in the cloud. For data-center or workstation workloads, use Docker, Podman, or a Kubernetes-class orchestrator. Pantavisor's value is device lifecycle management, not cluster scheduling. See Docker Compose to Pantavisor.
  • You cannot own PID 1 or reflash the device. Pantavisor replaces the init system and the update stack. If a vendor BSP, a certification regime, or a contract forces you to keep an existing init/updater that owns the device, you cannot run Pantavisor as intended — and there is no supported hybrid where an A/B image updater sits underneath it.
  • You only ever update one app and never the base, on a pipeline you cannot change. If a working, frozen image-update process already meets your needs and you have no appetite to re-architect the device, the migration cost may not pay off. (If you can change it, the benchmarks show what you would gain.)

Things that are not reasons to avoid Pantavisor​

  • "My apps are Docker images." Pantavisor pulls standard Docker/OCI images and converts them to containers — see the FAQ.
  • "I need signed, secure updates." Pantavisor signs whole revisions with X.509 keys and supports dm-verity, dm-crypt, and secure boot. See Security and compliance.
  • "I need the base/kernel updated too." That is exactly what Pantavisor does — the BSP and kernel ship as containers in the same revision as your apps.

If you are unsure whether your case fits, ask in the community — a short description of your device and update constraints is usually enough to get a clear answer.