cri-o Installation Guide Installation Guide

cri-o is a free and open-source lightweight container runtime for Kubernetes. CRI-O provides a minimal runtime specifically for Kubernetes, serving as an alternative to Docker or containerd

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 512MB minimum

Storage: 1GB for installation

Network: Container networking

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 10010 (default cri-o port)

Unix socket based

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install cri-o
sudo dnf install -y cri-o

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now crio

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=10010/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
crio --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install cri-o
sudo apt install -y cri-o

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now crio

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 10010

# Verify installation
crio --version

bash

# Install cri-o
sudo pacman -S cri-o

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now crio

# Verify installation
crio --version

bash

# Install cri-o
apk add --no-cache cri-o

# Enable and start service
rc-update add crio default
rc-service crio start

# Verify installation
crio --version

bash

# Install cri-o
sudo zypper install -y cri-o

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now crio

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=10010/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
crio --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install cri-o

# Start service
brew services start cri-o

# Verify installation
crio --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install cri-o

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'crio_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service crio start

# Verify installation
crio --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install cri-o

# Or using Scoop
scoop install cri-o

# Verify installation
crio --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/cri-o

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
crio --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable crio

# Start service
sudo systemctl start crio

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop crio

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart crio

# Check status
sudo systemctl status crio

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u crio -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add crio default

# Start service
rc-service crio start

# Stop service
rc-service crio stop

# Restart service
rc-service crio restart

# Check status
rc-service crio status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'crio_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service crio start

# Stop service
service crio stop

# Restart service
service crio restart

# Check status
service crio status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start cri-o
brew services stop cri-o
brew services restart cri-o

# Check status
brew services list | grep cri-o

powershell

# Start service
net start crio

# Stop service
net stop crio

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service crio
Stop-Service crio
Restart-Service crio

# Check status
Get-Service crio

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream cri-o_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:10010;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name cri-o.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name cri-o.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/cri-o.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/cri-o.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://cri-o_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName cri-o.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://cri-o.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName cri-o.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/cri-o.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/cri-o.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:10010/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:10010/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend cri-o_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/cri-o.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend cri-o_backend

backend cri-o_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server cri-o1 127.0.0.1:10010 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R cri-o:cri-o /etc/cri-o
sudo chmod 750 /etc/cri-o

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=10010/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status crio

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u crio -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep cri-o)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/cri-o"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/cri-o-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/cri-o /var/lib/cri-o

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/cri-o-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop crio

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/cri-o/cri-o-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start crio

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u crio -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/cri-o/cri-o.log

# Check configuration
crio --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/cri-o

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 10010

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 10010

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep cri-o)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep cri-o)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 10010

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  cri-o:
    image: cri-o:latest
    ports:
      - "10010:10010"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/cri-o
      - ./data:/var/lib/cri-o
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update cri-o

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade cri-o

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu cri-o

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade cri-o

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update cri-o

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade cri-o

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/cri-o-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/cri-o

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart crio

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/cri-o

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/cri-o -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/cri-o

Official Documentation: https://docs.cri-o.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o

Community Forum: https://forum.cri-o.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.cri-o.org/best-practices

---

Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

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