This environment is set up for learning how to work with CRI-O — a lightweight container runtime specifically designed for Kubernetes, implementing the Container Runtime Interface (CRI).
🔧 System Components
cri-o: The core CRI-compatible container runtime daemon.runc/crun: Low-level OCI runtime implementations.conmon: Container monitoring tool that handles container lifecycle.
🛠️ Tools
crictl: The primary CLI for interacting with CRI-O and other CRI-compatible runtimes.
🎯 Getting Started
Pull and list images
crictl pull hello-world:latest
crictl images
Run containers
# Create a pod first (CRI-O works with pods)
crictl runp pod-config.yaml
# Run container in the pod
crictl create <pod-id> container-config.yaml pod-config.yaml
crictl start <container-id>
Manage pods
# List pods
crictl pods
# Create a pod
crictl runp pod-config.yaml
# Stop and remove a pod
crictl stopp <pod-id>
crictl rmp <pod-id>
🏷️ Versions
- CRI-O: v1.35
📚 Learn More
- CRI-O docs: https://cri-o.io/
- crictl reference: https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/debug/debug-cluster/crictl/
- CRI specification: https://github.com/kubernetes/cri-api
- crictl help:
crictl --help
🧩 Related Content
🧪 Playgrounds
- contaiNERD CTL (official)
Happy learning! 🚀
A real VM, not a container
Get root on a VM with its own kernel, so Docker, Kubernetes, and systemd just work.
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SSH from browser or CLI
Use the built-in web terminal, or connect with labctl ssh, plain ssh, scp, or rsync.
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Drive it with AI
Let Claude, Codex, or any MCP client start this playground and run commands in it.
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Expose HTTP(S) ports
Give any web app running inside the VM a public URL - for yourself or to share with others.
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Share terminals
Invite others into your terminal session, or open it yourself from another device.
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Customize with init scripts
Add shell scripts that run at boot to install packages, clone repos, or seed test data.
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Private networking
VMs reach the internet via NAT with no public IP; several VMs share bridge networks.
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Ephemeral or persistent
By default, VMs are destroyed when the session ends; enable persistence to keep the disks for next time.
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Built-in container registry
A private registry.iximiuz.com for every playground to share images across services and VMs.
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