Containerd

Customize Containerd Settings

The base containerd configuration expects to merge in any additional configs present in /etc/cri/conf.d/20-customization.part.

Examples

Exposing Metrics

Patch the machine config by adding the following:

yaml

machine:
  files:
    - content: |
        [metrics]
          address = "0.0.0.0:11234"
      path: /etc/cri/conf.d/20-customization.part
      op: create

Once the server reboots, metrics are now available:

bash

$ curl ${IP}:11234/v1/metrics
# HELP container_blkio_io_service_bytes_recursive_bytes The blkio io service bytes recursive
# TYPE container_blkio_io_service_bytes_recursive_bytes gauge
container_blkio_io_service_bytes_recursive_bytes{container_id="0677d73196f5f4be1d408aab1c4125cf9e6c458a4bea39e590ac779709ffbe14",device="/dev/dm-0",major="253",minor="0",namespace="k8s.io",op="Async"} 0
container_blkio_io_service_bytes_recursive_bytes{container_id="0677d73196f5f4be1d408aab1c4125cf9e6c458a4bea39e590ac779709ffbe14",device="/dev/dm-0",major="253",minor="0",namespace="k8s.io",op="Discard"} 0
...
...

Pause Image

This change is often required for air-gapped environments, as containerd CRI plugin has a reference to the pause image which is used to create pods, and it can’t be controlled with Kubernetes pod definitions.

yaml

machine:
  files:
    - content: |
        [plugins]
          [plugins."io.containerd.cri.v1.images".pinned_images]
            sandbox = "registry.k8s.io/pause:3.8"
      path: /etc/cri/conf.d/20-customization.part
      op: create

Now the pause image is set to registry.k8s.io/pause:3.8:

bash

$ talosctl containers --kubernetes
NODE         NAMESPACE   ID                                                              IMAGE                                                      PID    STATUS
172.20.0.5   k8s.io      kube-system/kube-flannel-6hfck                                  registry.k8s.io/pause:3.8                                  1773   SANDBOX_READY
172.20.0.5   k8s.io      └─ kube-system/kube-flannel-6hfck:install-cni:bc39fec3cbac      ghcr.io/siderolabs/install-cni:v1.3.0-alpha.0-2-gb155fa0   0      CONTAINER_EXITED
172.20.0.5   k8s.io      └─ kube-system/kube-flannel-6hfck:install-config:5c3989353b98   ghcr.io/siderolabs/flannel:v0.20.1                         0      CONTAINER_EXITED
172.20.0.5   k8s.io      └─ kube-system/kube-flannel-6hfck:kube-flannel:116c67b50da8     ghcr.io/siderolabs/flannel:v0.20.1                         2092   CONTAINER_RUNNING
172.20.0.5   k8s.io      kube-system/kube-proxy-xp7jq                                    registry.k8s.io/pause:3.8                                  1780   SANDBOX_READY
172.20.0.5   k8s.io      └─ kube-system/kube-proxy-xp7jq:kube-proxy:84fc77c59e17         registry.k8s.io/kube-proxy:v1.26.0-alpha.3                 1843   CONTAINER_RUNNING

Set CDI plugin Spec Dirs to writable directories

By default Containerd configures CDI to read discovered hardware devices from ["/etc/cdi", "/var/run/cdi"]. Since /etc is not writable in Talos, CDI does not work for Dynamic Resource Allocation out of the box. To be able to use CDI and DRA modify the cdi spec dirs to writable locations like so:

yaml

machine:
  files:
  - path: /etc/cri/conf.d/20-customization.part
    op: create
    content: |
      [plugins."io.containerd.cri.v1.runtime"]
        cdi_spec_dirs = ["/var/cdi/static", "/var/cdi/dynamic"]

Also change the cdi spec dirs configuration in your Dynamic Resource Allocation driver, since it needs to place the discovered hardware device specs in these folders.

Enabling NRI Plugins

By default, Talos disables NRI plugins in containerd, as they might have security implications. However, if you need to enable them, you can do so by adding the following configuration:

yaml

machine:
  files:
    - content: |
        [plugins]
          [plugins."io.containerd.nri.v1.nri"]
             disable = false
      path: /etc/cri/conf.d/20-customization.part
      op: create

After applying the configuration, the NRI plugins can be deployed, for example plugins from this repository.

Last modified March 29, 2025: docs: docs on configuring Containerd CDI spec dirs (bf80079d4)