The following is an overview of the different installation methods available.
Kata Containers requires nested virtualization or bare metal. Check hardware requirements to see if your system is capable of running Kata Containers.
Packaged installation methods uses your distribution's native package format (such as RPM or DEB).
Note: We encourage installation methods that provides automatic updates, it ensures security updates and bug fixes are easily applied.
| Installation method | Description | Automatic updates | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Using kata-deploy | The preferred way to deploy the Kata Containers distributed binaries on a Kubernetes cluster | No! | Best way to give it a try on kata-containers on an already up and running Kubernetes cluster. |
| Using official distro packages | Kata packages provided by Linux distributions official repositories | yes | Recommended for most users. |
| Snap is unmaintained! |
|||
| Automatic | Run a single command to install a full system | No! | For those wanting the latest release quickly. |
| Manual | Follow a guide step-by-step to install a working system | No! | For those who want the latest release with more control. |
| Build from source | Build the software components manually | No! | Power users and developers only. |
Kata Deploy provides a Dockerfile, which contains all of the binaries and artifacts required to run Kata Containers, as well as reference DaemonSets, which can be utilized to install Kata Containers on a running Kubernetes cluster.
Use Kata Deploy to install Kata Containers on a Kubernetes Cluster.
Kata packages are provided by official distribution repositories for:
| Distribution (link to installation guide) | Minimum versions |
|---|---|
| CentOS | 8 |
| Fedora | 34 |
WARNING:
The Snap package method is unmaintained and only provides an old version of Kata Containers: The latest Kata Containers snap provides Kata Containers version 2.4.2 but the latest stable Kata Containers release at the time of writing is version 3.1.0.
We recommend strongly that you switch to an alternative Kata Containers installation method.
See: kata-containers#6769 for further details.
The snap installation is available for all distributions which support snapd.
~~Use snap to install Kata Containers from https://snapcraft.io. ~~
Use kata-manager to automatically install a working Kata Containers system.
Follow the containerd installation guide.
Note: Power users who decide to build from sources should be aware of the implications of using an unpackaged system which will not be automatically updated as new releases are made available.
Building from sources allows power users who are comfortable building software from source to use the latest component versions. This is not recommended for normal users.