Kubernetes Container Runtime Concepts

External

• https://kubernetes.io/docs/setup/production-environment/container-runtimes/

Internal

• Kubernetes Concepts
• Docker Concepts

Container Runtime

Each Kubernetes node runs a container runtime, usually Docker. However, support for other container runtimes is available, via Container Runtime Interface (CRI).

The Container Runtime Interface (CRI) is an abstraction layer that standardizes the way third-party container runtimes interface with Kubernetes.

Docker

Kubernetes and Docker are complementary technologies. Docker is the technology that starts and stops containers under Kubernetes' supervision. Kubernetes is the higher-level technology that decides which nodes to run containers on, when to scale an application up or down or when to apply updates.