CRI Container Runtime Interface

gRPC interface kubelet <-> container runtime.

Definition

CRI v1 (K8s 1.26+) defines RuntimeService (RunPodSandbox, CreateContainer, StartContainer, ExecSync, PortForward, etc.) and ImageService (ListImages, PullImage, RemoveImage) services. Dockershim removed in K8s 1.24 (April 2022): containerd or CRI-O mandatory. cri-dockerd (Mirantis) remains available for customers needing Docker.

Origin

Kubernetes SIG Node, CRI v1alpha1 K8s 1.5 (Dec 2016), CRI v1 K8s 1.26 (Dec 2022).

Usage

Mandatory interface for any Kubernetes node. containerd dominant, CRI-O strong in OpenShift / Red Hat.

Related terms

• Kubernetes — consommateur.
• containerd — runtime majoritaire.
• CRI-O — runtime OpenShift.