Download CoreOS rkt
Author: J | 2025-04-24
User Review of CoreOS rkt: 'We use CoreOS rkt in as developers and as an organization. My department uses CoreOS rkt to compartmentalize all of our developer User Review of CoreOS rkt: 'We use CoreOS rkt in as developers and as an organization. My department uses CoreOS rkt to compartmentalize all of our developer operation tools and to keep systems homogeneous across hardware. My organization as a whole use CoreOS rkt to containerize and scale customer instances. As a developer CoreOS rkt is a
28. rkt ?. rkt 2025 12 CoreOS
InstallationThis guide walks through deploying the bootcfg service on a Linux host (via RPM, rkt, docker, or binary) or on a Kubernetes cluster.Provisonerbootcfg is a service for network booting and provisioning machines to create CoreOS clusters. bootcfg should be installed on a provisioner machine (CoreOS or any Linux distribution) or cluster (Kubernetes) which can serve configs to client machines in a lab or datacenter.Choose one of the supported installation options:CoreOS (rkt)RPM-basedGeneral Linux (binary)With rktWith dockerKubernetes ServiceDownloadDownload the latest coreos-baremetal release to the provisioner host.$ wget wget the release has been signed by the CoreOS App Signing Key."">$ gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-key 18AD5014C99EF7E3BA5F6CE950BDD3E0FC8A365E$ gpg --verify coreos-baremetal-v0.4.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz.asc coreos-baremetal-v0.4.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz# gpg: Good signature from "CoreOS Application Signing Key "Untar the release.$ tar xzvf coreos-baremetal-v0.4.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz$ cd coreos-baremetal-v0.4.2-linux-amd64InstallRPM-based DistroOn an RPM-based provisioner, install the bootcfg RPM from the Copr repository using dnf or yum.dnf copr enable dghubble/bootcfgdnf install bootcfg# requires yum-plugin-copryum copr enable dghubble/bootcfgyum install bootcfgAlternately, download the repo file and place it in /etc/yum.repos.d/.CoreOSOn a CoreOS provisioner, rkt run bootcfg image with the provided systemd unit.$ sudo cp contrib/systemd/bootcfg-on-coreos.service /etc/systemd/system/bootcfg.serviceGeneral LinuxPre-built binaries are available for general Linux distributions. Copy the bootcfg static binary to an appropriate location on the host.$ sudo cp bootcfg /usr/local/binSet Up User/GroupThe bootcfg service should be run by a non-root user with access to the bootcfg data directory (/var/lib/bootcfg). Create a bootcfg user and group.$ sudo useradd -U bootcfg$ sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/bootcfg/assets$ sudo chown -R bootcfg:bootcfg /var/lib/bootcfgCreate systemd ServiceCopy the provided bootcfg systemd unit file.$ sudo cp contrib/systemd/bootcfg-local.service /etc/systemd/system/CustomizationCustomize bootcfg
CoreOS Rkt compared to Docker
In this tutorial, we'll run bootcfg on your Linux machine with rkt and CNI to network boot and provision a cluster of CoreOS machines locally. You'll be able to create Kubernetes clustes, etcd clusters, and test network setups.RequirementsInstall rkt and acbuild from the latest releases (example script). Optionally setup rkt privilege separation.Next, install the package dependencies.# Fedorasudo dnf install virt-install virt-manager# Debian/Ubuntusudo apt-get install virt-manager virtinst qemu-kvm systemd-containerNote: rkt does not yet integrate with SELinux on Fedora. As a workaround, temporarily set enforcement to permissive if you are comfortable (sudo setenforce Permissive). Check the rkt distribution notes or see the tracking issue.Clone the coreos-baremetal source which contains the examples and scripts.git clone coreos-baremetalDownload CoreOS image assets referenced by the etcd example to examples/assets../scripts/get-coreos./scripts/get-coreos channel versionDefine the metal0 virtual bridge with CNI. /etc/rkt/net.d/20-metal.conf sudo mkdir -p /etc/rkt/net.dsudo bash -c 'cat > /etc/rkt/net.d/20-metal.conf { "name": "metal0", "type": "bridge", "bridge": "metal0", "isGateway": true, "ipMasq": true, "ipam": { "type": "host-local", "subnet": "172.15.0.0/16", "routes" : [ { "dst" : "0.0.0.0/0" } ] }}EOF'On Fedora, add the metal0 interface to the trusted zone in your firewall configuration.sudo firewall-cmd --add-interface=metal0 --zone=trustedContainersLatestRun the latest bootcfg ACI with rkt and the etcd example.sudo rkt run --net=metal0:IP=172.15.0.2 --mount volume=data,target=/var/lib/bootcfg --volume data,kind=host,source=$PWD/examples --mount volume=groups,target=/var/lib/bootcfg/groups --volume groups,kind=host,source=$PWD/examples/groups/etcd quay.io/coreos/bootcfg:latest -- -address=0.0.0.0:8080 -log-level=debugReleaseAlternately, run the most recent tagged and signed bootcfg release. Trust the CoreOS App Signing Key for image signature verification.sudo rkt trust --prefix coreos.com/bootcfg# gpg key fingerprint is: 18AD 5014 C99E F7E3 BA5F 6CE9 50BD D3E0 FC8A 365Esudo rkt run --net=metal0:IP=172.15.0.2 --mount volume=data,target=/var/lib/bootcfg --volume data,kind=host,source=$PWD/examples --mount volume=groups,target=/var/lib/bootcfg/groups --volume groups,kind=host,source=$PWD/examples/groups/etcd coreos.com/bootcfg:v0.3.0 -- -address=0.0.0.0:8080 -log-level=debugIf you get an error about the IP assignment, garbage collect old pods.sudo rkt gc --grace-period=0./scripts/rkt-gc-force # sometimes neededTake a look at the etcd groups to get an idea of how machines are mapped to Profiles. Explore some endpoints exposed by the service.node1's ipxenode1's Ignitionnode1's MetadataNetworkSince the virtual network has no network boot services, use the dnsmasq ACI to create an iPXE network boot environment which runs DHCP, DNS, and TFTP.Trust the CoreOS App Signing Key.sudo rkt trust --prefix coreos.com/dnsmasq# gpg key fingerprint is: 18AD 5014 C99E F7E3 BA5F 6CE9 50BD D3E0 FC8A 365ERun the coreos.com/dnsmasq ACI with rkt.sudo rkt run coreos.com/dnsmasq:v0.3.0 --net=metal0:IP=172.15.0.3 -- -d -q --dhcp-range=172.15.0.50,172.15.0.99 --enable-tftp --tftp-root=/var/lib/tftpboot --dhcp-userclass=set:ipxe,iPXE --dhcp-boot=tag:#ipxe,undionly.kpxe --dhcp-boot=tag:ipxe, --log-queries --log-dhcp --dhcp-option=3,172.15.0.1 --address=/bootcfg.foo/172.15.0.2In this case, dnsmasq runs a DHCP server allocating IPs to VMs between 172.15.0.50 and 172.15.0.99, resolves bootcfg.foo to 172.15.0.2 (the IP where bootcfg runs), and points iPXE clients to VMsCreate VM nodes which have known hardware attributes. The nodes will be attached to the metal0 bridge where your pods run.sudo ./scripts/libvirt create-rktsudo virt-managerYou can use virt-manager to watch the console and reboot VM machines withsudo ./scripts/libvirt poweroffsudo ./scripts/libvirt startVerifyThe VMs should network boot and provision themselves into a three node etcd cluster, with other nodes behaving as etcd proxies.The example profile added autologin so you can verify that etcd works between nodes.systemctl status etcd2etcdctl set /message helloetcdctl get /messagefleetctl list-machinesPress ^] three times to stop a rkt pod. Clean up the VM machines.sudo ./scripts/libvirtInstall rkt in coreos - rocket
Now supports running OCI images as well as traditional upstream docker images.The Open Container Initiative, by providing a place for the industry to standardize around the container image and the runtime, has helped free up innovation in the areas of tooling and orchestration.Abstracting the runtime interfaceOne of the innovations taking advantage of this standardization is in the area of Kubernetes orchestration. As a big supporter of the Kubernetes effort, CoreOS submitted a bunch of patches to Kubernetes to add support for communicating and running containers via rkt in addition to the upstream docker engine. Google and upstream Kubernetes saw that adding these patches and possibly adding new container runtime interfaces in the future was going to complicate the Kubernetes code too much. The upstream Kubernetes team decided to implement an API protocol specification called the Container Runtime Interface (CRI). Then they would rework Kubernetes to call into CRI rather than to the Docker engine, so anyone who wants to build a container runtime interface could just implement the server side of the CRI and they could support Kubernetes. Upstream Kubernetes created a large test suite for CRI developers to test against to prove they could service Kubernetes. There is an ongoing effort to remove all of Docker-engine calls from Kubernetes and put them behind a shim called the docker-shim.Innovations in container toolingContainer registry innovations with skopeoA few years ago, we were working with the Project Atomic team on the atomic CLI . We wanted the ability to examine a container. User Review of CoreOS rkt: 'We use CoreOS rkt in as developers and as an organization. My department uses CoreOS rkt to compartmentalize all of our developer User Review of CoreOS rkt: 'We use CoreOS rkt in as developers and as an organization. My department uses CoreOS rkt to compartmentalize all of our developer operation tools and to keep systems homogeneous across hardware. My organization as a whole use CoreOS rkt to containerize and scale customer instances. As a developer CoreOS rkt is arkt module - github.com/coreos/rkt - Go Packages
Provides dnsmasq as quay.io/coreos/dnsmasq, if you wish to use rkt or Docker.rktRun the most recent tagged and signed bootcfg release ACI. Trust the CoreOS App Signing Key for image signature verification.$ sudo rkt trust --prefix coreos.com/bootcfg# gpg key fingerprint is: 18AD 5014 C99E F7E3 BA5F 6CE9 50BD D3E0 FC8A 365E$ sudo rkt run --net=host --mount volume=data,target=/var/lib/bootcfg --volume data,kind=host,source=/var/lib/bootcfg quay.io/coreos/bootcfg:v0.4.2 --mount volume=config,target=/etc/bootcfg --volume config,kind=host,source=/etc/bootcfg,readOnly=true -- -address=0.0.0.0:8080 -rpc-address=0.0.0.0:8081 -log-level=debugCreate machine profiles, groups, or Ignition configs at runtime with bootcmd or by using your own /var/lib/bootcfg volume mounts.DockerRun the latest or the most recently tagged bootcfg release Docker image.sudo docker run --net=host --rm -v /var/lib/bootcfg:/var/lib/bootcfg:Z -v /etc/bootcfg:/etc/bootcfg:Z,ro quay.io/coreos/bootcfg:v0.4.2 -address=0.0.0.0:8080 -rpc-address=0.0.0.0:8081 -log-level=debugCreate machine profiles, groups, or Ignition configs at runtime with bootcmd or by using your own /var/lib/bootcfg volume mounts.KubernetesCreate a bootcfg Kubernetes Deployment and Service based on the example manifests provided in contrib/k8s.$ kubectl apply -f contrib/k8s/bootcfg-deployment.yaml$ kubectl apply -f contrib/k8s/bootcfg-service.yamlThis runs the bootcfg service exposed on NodePort tcp:31488 on each node in the cluster. BOOTCFG_LOG_LEVEL is set to debug.$ kubectl get deployments$ kubectl get services$ kubectl get pods$ kubectl logs POD-NAMEThe example manifests use Kubernetes emptyDir volumes to back the bootcfg FileStore (/var/lib/bootcfg). This doesn't provide long-term persistent storage so you may wish to mount your machine groups, profiles, and Ignition configs with a gitRepo and host image assets on a file server.DocumentationView the documentation for bootcfg service docs, tutorials, example clusters and Ignition configs, PXE booting guides, or machine lifecycle guides.28. rkt ?. rkt 2025 12 CoreOS - Medium
Of configuration data across the cluster, making it possible to build highly available and fault-tolerant applications that can automatically scale and recover from failures. Overall, CoreOS represents a significant advancement in cloud-native computing, providing a robust, streamlined and secure foundation for the deployment of modern containerized applications in scalable and distributed environments.Examples of CoreOSTicketmaster: Ticketmaster, a leading global event ticketing company, adopted CoreOS to transform its ticketing infrastructure and provide faster, more scalable services to its customers. The company utilized CoreOS for containerization of its applications, which helped simplify the deployment process, increase the reliability of its services, and design a highly scalable platform that could handle millions of requests per second. This implementation allowed Ticketmaster to reduce its infrastructure costs significantly and build an agile, user-friendly experience for its customers.Handy: Handy, an on-demand home services platform, leveraged CoreOS and its orchestration tool (Tectonic) to improve the scalability, manageability, and security of its cloud-based platform. By employing CoreOS, Handy was able to efficiently manage its microservices architecture, provide consistent deployment processes, and increase the overall development velocity. The use of CoreOS also enabled Handy to have a well-automated environment setup and a robust container infrastructure, which allowed the company to focus on rapidly adding new features and improving its application for users.Honeycomb: Honeycomb, an observability platform for distributed software, adopted CoreOS as a crucial part of its infrastructure to scale their applications and manage them effectively. CoreOS’s container runtime (rkt) played a significant role in delivering efficient resource consumption and easy-to-control processes for Honeycomb’s applications. Additionally, the CoreOS container linux also provided a stable and secure host for running the company’s services. Ultimately, CoreOS helped Honeycomb create a streamlined, reliable, and maintainable infrastructure to support its growing customer base.CoreOS FAQWhat is CoreOS?CoreOS is an open-source lightweight operating system that focuses on providing a minimal operating environment for deploying containerized applications. It is designed for running containerized applications at scale, providing features such as automatic updates and security patches.What are the benefits of using CoreOS?CoreOS offers several benefits, such as a lightweight footprint, ease of deployment, automatic updates, improved security, and the ability to run containerized applications efficiently. All these features contribute to a more stable, secure, and scalable environment for deploying container-based applications.What are the main components of CoreOS?CoreOS consists of three main components: the Container Linux operating system, the rkt container runtime, and the etcd distributed key-value store. These components work together to provide a minimal, secure, and easily-maintainable platform for running containerized applications.How does CoreOS compare to other container-optimized operating systems?CoreOS is often compared to other lightweight operating systems designed for running containers, such as RancherOS and Ubuntu Core. While each has its own unique features, CoreOS standskubernetes at coreos all about rkt: containers and - scale coreos
Fast. This is why you want to be aware of the bigger world of virtualization and containerization. These are some of the container technologies to watch:Kubernetes - Drawing from Google’s experience of running containers in production over the years, Kubernetes facilitates the deployment of containers in your data center by representing a cluster of servers as a single system.Docker Swarm - Swarm is Docker’s clustering, scheduling and orchestration tool for managing a cluster of Docker hosts. rkt - Part of the CoreOS ecosystem of containerization tools, rkt is a security minded container engine that uses KVM for VM-based isolation and packs other enhanced security features. Apache Mesos - An open source kernel for distributed systems, Apache Mesos can run different kinds of distributed jobs, including containers. Amazon ECS - Elastic Container Service is Amazon’s service for running and orchestrating containerized applications on AWS, with support for Docker containers.ConclusionLXC offers the advantages of a VE on Linux, mainly the ability to isolate your own private workloads from one another. It is a cheaper and faster solution to implement than a VM, but doing so requires a bit of extra learning and expertise.Docker is a significant improvement of LXC’s capabilities. Its obvious advantages are gaining Docker a growing following of adherents. In fact, it starts getting dangerously close to negating the advantage of VM’s over VE’s because of its ability to quickly and easily transfer and replicate any Docker-created packages. Indeed, it is not a stretch to imagine that VM providers such as Cisco and VMware may already be glancing nervously at Docker – an open source startup that could seriously erode their VM profit margins. If so, we may soon see such providers also develop their own commercial VE offerings, perhaps targeted at large organizations as VM-lite solutions. As they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, commercially join ‘em.Protect Your Business from Data BreachesUpGuard can protect your business from data breaches, identify all of your data leaks, and help you continuously monitor the security posture of all your vendors.UpGuard also supports compliance across a myriad of security frameworks, including the new requirements set by Biden's Cybersecurity Executive Order.Test the security of your website, CLICK HERE to receive your instant security score now!. User Review of CoreOS rkt: 'We use CoreOS rkt in as developers and as an organization. My department uses CoreOS rkt to compartmentalize all of our developer User Review of CoreOS rkt: 'We use CoreOS rkt in as developers and as an organization. My department uses CoreOS rkt to compartmentalize all of our developer operation tools and to keep systems homogeneous across hardware. My organization as a whole use CoreOS rkt to containerize and scale customer instances. As a developer CoreOS rkt is aComments
InstallationThis guide walks through deploying the bootcfg service on a Linux host (via RPM, rkt, docker, or binary) or on a Kubernetes cluster.Provisonerbootcfg is a service for network booting and provisioning machines to create CoreOS clusters. bootcfg should be installed on a provisioner machine (CoreOS or any Linux distribution) or cluster (Kubernetes) which can serve configs to client machines in a lab or datacenter.Choose one of the supported installation options:CoreOS (rkt)RPM-basedGeneral Linux (binary)With rktWith dockerKubernetes ServiceDownloadDownload the latest coreos-baremetal release to the provisioner host.$ wget wget the release has been signed by the CoreOS App Signing Key."">$ gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-key 18AD5014C99EF7E3BA5F6CE950BDD3E0FC8A365E$ gpg --verify coreos-baremetal-v0.4.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz.asc coreos-baremetal-v0.4.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz# gpg: Good signature from "CoreOS Application Signing Key "Untar the release.$ tar xzvf coreos-baremetal-v0.4.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz$ cd coreos-baremetal-v0.4.2-linux-amd64InstallRPM-based DistroOn an RPM-based provisioner, install the bootcfg RPM from the Copr repository using dnf or yum.dnf copr enable dghubble/bootcfgdnf install bootcfg# requires yum-plugin-copryum copr enable dghubble/bootcfgyum install bootcfgAlternately, download the repo file and place it in /etc/yum.repos.d/.CoreOSOn a CoreOS provisioner, rkt run bootcfg image with the provided systemd unit.$ sudo cp contrib/systemd/bootcfg-on-coreos.service /etc/systemd/system/bootcfg.serviceGeneral LinuxPre-built binaries are available for general Linux distributions. Copy the bootcfg static binary to an appropriate location on the host.$ sudo cp bootcfg /usr/local/binSet Up User/GroupThe bootcfg service should be run by a non-root user with access to the bootcfg data directory (/var/lib/bootcfg). Create a bootcfg user and group.$ sudo useradd -U bootcfg$ sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/bootcfg/assets$ sudo chown -R bootcfg:bootcfg /var/lib/bootcfgCreate systemd ServiceCopy the provided bootcfg systemd unit file.$ sudo cp contrib/systemd/bootcfg-local.service /etc/systemd/system/CustomizationCustomize bootcfg
2025-04-22In this tutorial, we'll run bootcfg on your Linux machine with rkt and CNI to network boot and provision a cluster of CoreOS machines locally. You'll be able to create Kubernetes clustes, etcd clusters, and test network setups.RequirementsInstall rkt and acbuild from the latest releases (example script). Optionally setup rkt privilege separation.Next, install the package dependencies.# Fedorasudo dnf install virt-install virt-manager# Debian/Ubuntusudo apt-get install virt-manager virtinst qemu-kvm systemd-containerNote: rkt does not yet integrate with SELinux on Fedora. As a workaround, temporarily set enforcement to permissive if you are comfortable (sudo setenforce Permissive). Check the rkt distribution notes or see the tracking issue.Clone the coreos-baremetal source which contains the examples and scripts.git clone coreos-baremetalDownload CoreOS image assets referenced by the etcd example to examples/assets../scripts/get-coreos./scripts/get-coreos channel versionDefine the metal0 virtual bridge with CNI. /etc/rkt/net.d/20-metal.conf sudo mkdir -p /etc/rkt/net.dsudo bash -c 'cat > /etc/rkt/net.d/20-metal.conf { "name": "metal0", "type": "bridge", "bridge": "metal0", "isGateway": true, "ipMasq": true, "ipam": { "type": "host-local", "subnet": "172.15.0.0/16", "routes" : [ { "dst" : "0.0.0.0/0" } ] }}EOF'On Fedora, add the metal0 interface to the trusted zone in your firewall configuration.sudo firewall-cmd --add-interface=metal0 --zone=trustedContainersLatestRun the latest bootcfg ACI with rkt and the etcd example.sudo rkt run --net=metal0:IP=172.15.0.2 --mount volume=data,target=/var/lib/bootcfg --volume data,kind=host,source=$PWD/examples --mount volume=groups,target=/var/lib/bootcfg/groups --volume groups,kind=host,source=$PWD/examples/groups/etcd quay.io/coreos/bootcfg:latest -- -address=0.0.0.0:8080 -log-level=debugReleaseAlternately, run the most recent tagged and signed bootcfg release. Trust the CoreOS App Signing Key for image signature verification.sudo rkt trust --prefix coreos.com/bootcfg# gpg key fingerprint is: 18AD 5014 C99E F7E3 BA5F 6CE9 50BD D3E0 FC8A 365Esudo rkt run --net=metal0:IP=172.15.0.2 --mount volume=data,target=/var/lib/bootcfg --volume data,kind=host,source=$PWD/examples --mount volume=groups,target=/var/lib/bootcfg/groups --volume groups,kind=host,source=$PWD/examples/groups/etcd coreos.com/bootcfg:v0.3.0 -- -address=0.0.0.0:8080 -log-level=debugIf you get an error about the IP assignment, garbage collect old pods.sudo rkt gc --grace-period=0./scripts/rkt-gc-force # sometimes neededTake a look at the etcd groups to get an idea of how machines are mapped to Profiles. Explore some endpoints exposed by the service.node1's ipxenode1's Ignitionnode1's MetadataNetworkSince the virtual network has no network boot services, use the dnsmasq ACI to create an iPXE network boot environment which runs DHCP, DNS, and TFTP.Trust the CoreOS App Signing Key.sudo rkt trust --prefix coreos.com/dnsmasq# gpg key fingerprint is: 18AD 5014 C99E F7E3 BA5F 6CE9 50BD D3E0 FC8A 365ERun the coreos.com/dnsmasq ACI with rkt.sudo rkt run coreos.com/dnsmasq:v0.3.0 --net=metal0:IP=172.15.0.3 -- -d -q --dhcp-range=172.15.0.50,172.15.0.99 --enable-tftp --tftp-root=/var/lib/tftpboot --dhcp-userclass=set:ipxe,iPXE --dhcp-boot=tag:#ipxe,undionly.kpxe --dhcp-boot=tag:ipxe, --log-queries --log-dhcp --dhcp-option=3,172.15.0.1 --address=/bootcfg.foo/172.15.0.2In this case, dnsmasq runs a DHCP server allocating IPs to VMs between 172.15.0.50 and 172.15.0.99, resolves bootcfg.foo to 172.15.0.2 (the IP where bootcfg runs), and points iPXE clients to VMsCreate VM nodes which have known hardware attributes. The nodes will be attached to the metal0 bridge where your pods run.sudo ./scripts/libvirt create-rktsudo virt-managerYou can use virt-manager to watch the console and reboot VM machines withsudo ./scripts/libvirt poweroffsudo ./scripts/libvirt startVerifyThe VMs should network boot and provision themselves into a three node etcd cluster, with other nodes behaving as etcd proxies.The example profile added autologin so you can verify that etcd works between nodes.systemctl status etcd2etcdctl set /message helloetcdctl get /messagefleetctl list-machinesPress ^] three times to stop a rkt pod. Clean up the VM machines.sudo ./scripts/libvirt
2025-03-30Provides dnsmasq as quay.io/coreos/dnsmasq, if you wish to use rkt or Docker.rktRun the most recent tagged and signed bootcfg release ACI. Trust the CoreOS App Signing Key for image signature verification.$ sudo rkt trust --prefix coreos.com/bootcfg# gpg key fingerprint is: 18AD 5014 C99E F7E3 BA5F 6CE9 50BD D3E0 FC8A 365E$ sudo rkt run --net=host --mount volume=data,target=/var/lib/bootcfg --volume data,kind=host,source=/var/lib/bootcfg quay.io/coreos/bootcfg:v0.4.2 --mount volume=config,target=/etc/bootcfg --volume config,kind=host,source=/etc/bootcfg,readOnly=true -- -address=0.0.0.0:8080 -rpc-address=0.0.0.0:8081 -log-level=debugCreate machine profiles, groups, or Ignition configs at runtime with bootcmd or by using your own /var/lib/bootcfg volume mounts.DockerRun the latest or the most recently tagged bootcfg release Docker image.sudo docker run --net=host --rm -v /var/lib/bootcfg:/var/lib/bootcfg:Z -v /etc/bootcfg:/etc/bootcfg:Z,ro quay.io/coreos/bootcfg:v0.4.2 -address=0.0.0.0:8080 -rpc-address=0.0.0.0:8081 -log-level=debugCreate machine profiles, groups, or Ignition configs at runtime with bootcmd or by using your own /var/lib/bootcfg volume mounts.KubernetesCreate a bootcfg Kubernetes Deployment and Service based on the example manifests provided in contrib/k8s.$ kubectl apply -f contrib/k8s/bootcfg-deployment.yaml$ kubectl apply -f contrib/k8s/bootcfg-service.yamlThis runs the bootcfg service exposed on NodePort tcp:31488 on each node in the cluster. BOOTCFG_LOG_LEVEL is set to debug.$ kubectl get deployments$ kubectl get services$ kubectl get pods$ kubectl logs POD-NAMEThe example manifests use Kubernetes emptyDir volumes to back the bootcfg FileStore (/var/lib/bootcfg). This doesn't provide long-term persistent storage so you may wish to mount your machine groups, profiles, and Ignition configs with a gitRepo and host image assets on a file server.DocumentationView the documentation for bootcfg service docs, tutorials, example clusters and Ignition configs, PXE booting guides, or machine lifecycle guides.
2025-04-16Of configuration data across the cluster, making it possible to build highly available and fault-tolerant applications that can automatically scale and recover from failures. Overall, CoreOS represents a significant advancement in cloud-native computing, providing a robust, streamlined and secure foundation for the deployment of modern containerized applications in scalable and distributed environments.Examples of CoreOSTicketmaster: Ticketmaster, a leading global event ticketing company, adopted CoreOS to transform its ticketing infrastructure and provide faster, more scalable services to its customers. The company utilized CoreOS for containerization of its applications, which helped simplify the deployment process, increase the reliability of its services, and design a highly scalable platform that could handle millions of requests per second. This implementation allowed Ticketmaster to reduce its infrastructure costs significantly and build an agile, user-friendly experience for its customers.Handy: Handy, an on-demand home services platform, leveraged CoreOS and its orchestration tool (Tectonic) to improve the scalability, manageability, and security of its cloud-based platform. By employing CoreOS, Handy was able to efficiently manage its microservices architecture, provide consistent deployment processes, and increase the overall development velocity. The use of CoreOS also enabled Handy to have a well-automated environment setup and a robust container infrastructure, which allowed the company to focus on rapidly adding new features and improving its application for users.Honeycomb: Honeycomb, an observability platform for distributed software, adopted CoreOS as a crucial part of its infrastructure to scale their applications and manage them effectively. CoreOS’s container runtime (rkt) played a significant role in delivering efficient resource consumption and easy-to-control processes for Honeycomb’s applications. Additionally, the CoreOS container linux also provided a stable and secure host for running the company’s services. Ultimately, CoreOS helped Honeycomb create a streamlined, reliable, and maintainable infrastructure to support its growing customer base.CoreOS FAQWhat is CoreOS?CoreOS is an open-source lightweight operating system that focuses on providing a minimal operating environment for deploying containerized applications. It is designed for running containerized applications at scale, providing features such as automatic updates and security patches.What are the benefits of using CoreOS?CoreOS offers several benefits, such as a lightweight footprint, ease of deployment, automatic updates, improved security, and the ability to run containerized applications efficiently. All these features contribute to a more stable, secure, and scalable environment for deploying container-based applications.What are the main components of CoreOS?CoreOS consists of three main components: the Container Linux operating system, the rkt container runtime, and the etcd distributed key-value store. These components work together to provide a minimal, secure, and easily-maintainable platform for running containerized applications.How does CoreOS compare to other container-optimized operating systems?CoreOS is often compared to other lightweight operating systems designed for running containers, such as RancherOS and Ubuntu Core. While each has its own unique features, CoreOS stands
2025-04-20Developed in orchestrating their own internal architecture. OpenShift decided to drop our Gear project and start working with Google on Kubernetes. Kubernetes is now one of the largest community projects on GitHub.KubernetesKubernetes was developed to use Google's lmctfy container runtime. Lmctfy was ported to work with Docker during the summer of 2014. Kubernetes runs a daemon on each node in the Kubernetes cluster called a kubelet. This means the original Kubernetes with Docker 1.8 workflow looked something like:kubelet → dockerdaemon @ PID1Back to the two-daemon system.But it gets worse. With every release of Docker, Kubernetes broke.Docker 1.10 Switched the backing store causing a rebuilding of all images.Docker 1.11 started using runc to launch containers:kubelet → dockerdaemon @ runc @PID1Docker 1.12 added a container daemon to launch containers. Its main purpose was to satisfy Docker Swarm (a Kubernetes competitor):kubelet → dockerdaemon → containerd @runc @ pid1As was stated previously, every Docker release has broken Kubernetes functionality, which is why Kubernetes and OpenShift require us to ship older versions of Docker for their workloads.Now we have a three-daemon system, where if anything goes wrong on any of the daemons, the entire house of cards falls apart.Toward container standardizationCoreOS, rkt, and the alternate runtimeDue to the issues with the Docker runtime, several organizations were looking at alternative runtimes. One such organization was CoreOS. CoreOS had offered an alternative container runtime to upstream docker, called rkt (rocket). They also introduced a standard container specification called appc (App Container). Basically, they wanted to get everyone
2025-03-27