CONTAINERS TOOLKIT POWERSHELL MODULE

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Usage
   • Installing and importing Containers-Toolkit module
   • Command reference
3. Important Notes
4. Contribution
5. Related Projects

Introduction

Containers-Toolkit is a Windows PowerShell module for downloading, installing, and setting up default configs for Containerd, BuildKit, Windows CNI plugin, and nerdctl.

Usage

Installing and importing Containers-Toolkit module

Install the module from PowerShell Gallery

COMING SOON: We are currently working on publishing this module to PS Gallery to make it easier to import the module

Download Source files

Coming soon

Clone the repo

Option 1: Clone containers-toolkit into one of the folder locations in the $env:PSModulePath environment variable.

1. To get a possible module path:

   $env:PSModulePath -split ";"

2. Clone the repo

   cd <selected-module-path>
   git clone https://github.com/microsoft/containers-toolkit.git

3. Import the module

   Import-Module -Name containers-toolkit -Force

Option 2: Clone containers-toolkit to a folder location of choice and add the new module location to the Windows PowerShell module path

1. Clone the repo

   git clone https://github.com/microsoft/containers-toolkit.git

2. Add the directory to Windows PowerShell module path

   $env:PSModulePath += ";<path-to-module-directory>"

3. Install module dependencies

   Install-Module -Name ThreadJob -Force
   Install-Module -Name HNS -AllowClobber -Force

4. Import the module

   Import-Module -Name containers-toolkit -Force

Get the module details

Get-Help containers-toolkit

Get-Module -Name containers-toolkit

Command reference

1. List of all available commands can be found in the Command reference section
2. Detailed command reference for each cmdlet can be found in the About section

List of available commands

Get-Command -Module containers-toolkit

Examples

1. Get help for Install-Containerd command

   Get-Help Install-Containerd

2. List container tools (Containerd, BuildKit, and nerdctl) install status

   Show-ContainerTools

3. Installs Containerd version 1.7.7 at 'C:\Test\Path\containerd' and adds 'C:\Test\Path\containerd' in the environment path.

   Install-Containerd -Version "1.7.7" -InstallPath 'C:\Test\Path\Containerd'

Important Notes

1. Requires elevated PowerShell to run some commands.

2. To use these tools (Containerd, BuildKit, and nerdctl), ensure that Containers and HyperV Windows features are enabled.

   To get the features to enable, use:

   Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online | `
       Where-Object { $_.FeatureName -like 'containers' -or $_.FeatureName -match "Microsoft-Hyper-V(-All)?$" } | `
       Select-Object FeatureName, Possible, State, RestartNeeded

   To enable a feature:

   Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName '<Feature-Name-Here>' -All -NoRestart

3. Requires PowerShell modules HNS and ThreadJob

FAQs

1. Error when running Import-Module
   • Error when running Import-Module
   • Unblock a script to run it without changing the execution policy
   • Unblock-File

TODO

• Set up GitWorkflow files:
  • GitHub Repository Structure Best Practices
  • Setup ARM64 self-hosted runner
  • Dependabot to update version in main + Licence
• Pipeline configuration:
  • Code Analysis with DevSkim
• Publish module to PSGallery
• Fix Code analysis warnings
• Dev install: (Hacks) Add functions in Containerd and BuildKit to build from source files. (Is this really necessary? May be an overkill)
• Publish to Microsoft Learn: MicrosoftDocs / Virtualization-Documentation
  • Contribute to the Microsoft Learn platform
• Rename this module to containerstoolkit: The current name for this module might cause confusion with repository named windows-containers-tools
• Update README.md (Documentation)
• Update containers-toolkit/containers-toolkit.Format.ps1xml (Documentation)
• Update Containers-Toolkit/Containers-ToolkitlsForWindows.help.txt (Documentation)
• Use Containers-Toolkit
• Add Pester test
• Replace GitHub username in URL: https://github.com/...
• Rootless installation: Not needed for Windows

Contribution

Related Projects

This project builds on work done by others to create a PowerShell module.

• Install-ContainerdRuntime
• sig-windows-tools- Install-Containerd.ps1
• containerd-installer
• Install MCR on Windows Servers
• Stevedore
• setup_buildkitd_on_windows.ps1
• Windows Containers on Windows 10 without Docker (using Containerd)

Other relevant repositories

• Containerd
• BuildKit
• nerdctl
• Container networking plugins for Windows containers