Skip to main content
Redhat Developers  Logo
  • Products

    Featured

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      Red Hat Enterprise Linux Icon
    • Red Hat OpenShift AI
      Red Hat OpenShift AI
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI
      Linux icon inside of a brain
    • Image mode for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      RHEL image mode
    • Red Hat OpenShift
      Openshift icon
    • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
      Ansible icon
    • Red Hat Developer Hub
      Developer Hub
    • View All Red Hat Products
    • Linux

      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      • Image mode for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      • Red Hat Universal Base Images (UBI)
    • Java runtimes & frameworks

      • JBoss Enterprise Application Platform
      • Red Hat build of OpenJDK
    • Kubernetes

      • Red Hat OpenShift
      • Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift
      • Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization
      • Red Hat OpenShift Lightspeed
    • Integration & App Connectivity

      • Red Hat Build of Apache Camel
      • Red Hat Service Interconnect
      • Red Hat Connectivity Link
    • AI/ML

      • Red Hat OpenShift AI
      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI
    • Automation

      • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
      • Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed
    • Developer tools

      • Red Hat Trusted Software Supply Chain
      • Podman Desktop
      • Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces
    • Developer Sandbox

      Developer Sandbox
      Try Red Hat products and technologies without setup or configuration fees for 30 days with this shared Openshift and Kubernetes cluster.
    • Try at no cost
  • Technologies

    Featured

    • AI/ML
      AI/ML Icon
    • Linux
      Linux Icon
    • Kubernetes
      Cloud icon
    • Automation
      Automation Icon showing arrows moving in a circle around a gear
    • View All Technologies
    • Programming Languages & Frameworks

      • Java
      • Python
      • JavaScript
    • System Design & Architecture

      • Red Hat architecture and design patterns
      • Microservices
      • Event-Driven Architecture
      • Databases
    • Developer Productivity

      • Developer productivity
      • Developer Tools
      • GitOps
    • Secure Development & Architectures

      • Security
      • Secure coding
    • Platform Engineering

      • DevOps
      • DevSecOps
      • Ansible automation for applications and services
    • Automated Data Processing

      • AI/ML
      • Data Science
      • Apache Kafka on Kubernetes
      • View All Technologies
    • Start exploring in the Developer Sandbox for free

      sandbox graphic
      Try Red Hat's products and technologies without setup or configuration.
    • Try at no cost
  • Learn

    Featured

    • Kubernetes & Cloud Native
      Openshift icon
    • Linux
      Rhel icon
    • Automation
      Ansible cloud icon
    • Java
      Java icon
    • AI/ML
      AI/ML Icon
    • View All Learning Resources

    E-Books

    • GitOps Cookbook
    • Podman in Action
    • Kubernetes Operators
    • The Path to GitOps
    • View All E-books

    Cheat Sheets

    • Linux Commands
    • Bash Commands
    • Git
    • systemd Commands
    • View All Cheat Sheets

    Documentation

    • API Catalog
    • Product Documentation
    • Legacy Documentation
    • Red Hat Learning

      Learning image
      Boost your technical skills to expert-level with the help of interactive lessons offered by various Red Hat Learning programs.
    • Explore Red Hat Learning
  • Developer Sandbox

    Developer Sandbox

    • Access Red Hat’s products and technologies without setup or configuration, and start developing quicker than ever before with our new, no-cost sandbox environments.
    • Explore Developer Sandbox

    Featured Developer Sandbox activities

    • Get started with your Developer Sandbox
    • OpenShift virtualization and application modernization using the Developer Sandbox
    • Explore all Developer Sandbox activities

    Ready to start developing apps?

    • Try at no cost
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Videos

Red Hat Container Development Kit (CDK) With Nested KVM

 

February 13, 2018
Scott McCarty (fatherlinux)
Related topics:
Developer ToolsLinuxKubernetesVirtualization
Related products:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Share:

    Why

    If you are like me, you probably prefer to install new and exploratory software in a fresh virtual machine (VM) or container to insulate your laptop/desktop from software pollution (TM). Red Hat Container Development Kit (CDK) relies on virtualization to create a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) virtual machine to run OpenShift (based on Kubernetes). Red Hat specifically supports installation of the CDK on Windows, macOS, and RHEL Server, but if you are running Fedora, RHEL Workstation, or even CentOS, you will run into trouble. If you are not running a supported desktop, you can always use a RHEL Server virtual machine, and this tutorial is for you.

    This tutorial is specific to running RHEL Server as a VM on RHEL Workstation, but these instructions should work for Fedora and CentOS. With a modification of the first step - creating a virtual machine with nested virtualization enabled (vmware, hyper-v) - you should be able to make these instructions work on Windows and macOS as well.  (Note: VirtualBox does not support nested virtualization,  so this will not work with VirtualBox.)

    How

    Create a Virtual Machine

    First, create a new virtual machine and do a RHEL Server installation. Personally, I use virt-manager because it makes it easy to create ephemeral virtual machines for testing. I gave my VM 8192 MB of RAM, and 1 vCPU. While creating the VM, remember to configure the CPU to copy the host configuration. This will enable Nested KVM which will allow you to run virtual machines inside of your new virtual machine - mind....blown....

     

     

    Install RHEL

    Download and install RHEL Server, because that's one of the supported platforms for CDK. I won't rewrite the instructions on this because most people can do this without documentation.

    On the new RHEL Installation, install and configure virtualization and a few other tools to make things easier:

    yum install -y qemu-kvm qemu-img libvirt virt-manager xauth firefox

    Install CDK

    In the newly created virtual machine enable, download, and install CDK. Remember to:

    subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-devtools-rpms
    subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-server-rhscl-7-rpms
    cd /etc/pki/rpm-gpg
    wget -O RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-devel https://www.redhat.com/security/data/a5787476.txt
    rpm --import RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-devel
    yum install cdk-minishift docker-machine-kvm

     

    Now, setup the CDK. This will do everything for you, including putting the OC binary where it needs to be.

    ln -s /root/.minishift/cache/oc/v3.7.14/linux/oc /usr/bin/oc
    minishift setup-cdk
    minishift start

     

    Up and Running

    These are instructions usually missed by tutorials. Notice, the oc command is automatically configured to connect to the Kubernetes/OpenShift environment in the virtual machine (which is inside the virtual machine you created - mic drop)

    oc get pods
    oc get pv
    oc get node

    You can also get directly into the CDK virtual, virtual machine by using the following command. From here you can run docker commands, look at underlying storage, etc:

    minishift ssh
    docker ps
    docker images

     

    Or, go into the browser console with this command. This will show you the OpenShift web console in a browser, displayed over X11 to your laptop (that's why we installed xauth). Warning, you have to disable SELinux:

    setenforce 0
    minishift console

     

    Now, you have a fully functional OpenShift environment up and running, and you are ready explore just about any Kubernetes or OpenShift tutorial on the Internet. You even have persistent volumes set up for storage tests.

     

    Tips & Tricks

    Tip: if the minishift setup fails, you can always delete and start again with:

    minishift delete
    minishift cdk-setup

    Tip: Sometimes you have to manually delete the subscription on the Red Hat Portal so that you can run the CDK setup again. Just use the Remove System button:

     

    Tip: Since we are doing nested virtualization, every now and then you will end up with some funky network problems or other problems. Just, delete the CDK and reboot the virtual machine:

    minishift delete
    reboot
    Last updated: December 1, 2023

    Recent Posts

    • How to deploy EVPN in OpenStack Services on OpenShift

    • Ollama or vLLM? How to choose the right LLM serving tool for your use case

    • How to build a Model-as-a-Service platform

    • How Quarkus works with OpenTelemetry on OpenShift

    • Our top 10 articles of 2025 (so far)

    Red Hat Developers logo LinkedIn YouTube Twitter Facebook

    Products

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
    • Red Hat OpenShift
    • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

    Build

    • Developer Sandbox
    • Developer Tools
    • Interactive Tutorials
    • API Catalog

    Quicklinks

    • Learning Resources
    • E-books
    • Cheat Sheets
    • Blog
    • Events
    • Newsletter

    Communicate

    • About us
    • Contact sales
    • Find a partner
    • Report a website issue
    • Site Status Dashboard
    • Report a security problem

    RED HAT DEVELOPER

    Build here. Go anywhere.

    We serve the builders. The problem solvers who create careers with code.

    Join us if you’re a developer, software engineer, web designer, front-end designer, UX designer, computer scientist, architect, tester, product manager, project manager or team lead.

    Sign me up

    Red Hat legal and privacy links

    • About Red Hat
    • Jobs
    • Events
    • Locations
    • Contact Red Hat
    • Red Hat Blog
    • Inclusion at Red Hat
    • Cool Stuff Store
    • Red Hat Summit
    © 2025 Red Hat

    Red Hat legal and privacy links

    • Privacy statement
    • Terms of use
    • All policies and guidelines
    • Digital accessibility

    Report a website issue