Using Podman instead of Docker¶
Podman has an Docker API compatibility layer. k3d uses the Docker API and is compatible with Podman v4 and higher.
Podman support is experimental
k3d is not guaranteed to work with Podman. If you find a bug, do help by filing an issue
Using Podman¶
Ensure the Podman system socket is available:
sudo systemctl enable --now podman.socket
# or sudo podman system service --time=0
To point k3d at the right Docker socket, create a symbolic link:
ln -s /run/podman/podman.sock /var/run/docker.sock
# or install your system podman-docker if available
sudo k3d cluster create
Alternatively, set DOCKER_HOST when running k3d:
export DOCKER_HOST=unix:///run/podman/podman.sock
sudo --preserve-env=DOCKER_HOST k3d cluster create
Using rootless Podman¶
Ensure the Podman user socket is available:
systemctl --user enable --now podman.socket
# or podman system service --time=0
Set DOCKER_HOST when running k3d:
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR:-/run/user/$(id -u)}
export DOCKER_HOST=unix://$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/podman/podman.sock
k3d cluster create
Creating local registries¶
Because Podman does not have a default “bridge” network, you have to specify a network using the --default-network flag when creating a local registry:
k3d registry create --default-network podman mycluster-registry
To use this registry with a cluster, pass the --registry-use flag:
k3d cluster create --registry-use mycluster-registry mycluster
Incompatibility with --registry-create
Because --registry-create assumes the default network to be “bridge”, avoid --registry-create when using Podman. Instead, always create a registry before creating a cluster.