description containerd Overview
Containerd is an open-source container runtime that focuses on providing a low-level platform for managing the lifecycle of containers, including image transfer, storage, and execution.
help containerd FAQ
What is the relationship between containerd and Docker?
Containerd was originally developed within Docker as the core container runtime layer of the Docker Engine. Docker donated containerd to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in 2017, and it became a graduated CNCF project in 2019.
Can containerd run containers without Docker or Kubernetes?
Yes, containerd can run independently using its bundled CLI tool `ctr` or the community-maintained `nerdctl` client, which provides a Docker-like command experience. Many production clusters now use containerd directly as the container runtime for Kubernetes nodes.
Does containerd use runC under the hood?
Yes, containerd delegates the actual creation and execution of OCI-compliant containers to `runc`, the reference implementation of the OCI runtime specification. Containerd handles higher-level concerns like image pull, storage, and snapshot management while runc does the low-level process isolation.
How does containerd integrate with Kubernetes?
Kubernetes communicates with containerd through the Container Runtime Interface (CRI), using a shim called `cri-containerd`. Since Docker was deprecated as a Kubernetes runtime in version 1.20 (released in 2020), containerd has become the default runtime for most managed Kubernetes distributions including Amazon EKS, Google GKE, and Azure AKS.
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