Podman Desktop 0.14 - Our Kind-est release yet!
We have been working on a Kind extension for a while now, and decided it is time to promote it into a release just in time for KubeCon and CloudNativeCon Europe!
We're especially excited about releasing Kind because it finally shows the full purpose of Podman Desktop: not just local container engines, but Kubernetes too. More importantly, providing tools that allow you to manage both environments and seamlessly move between them.
Some of these features were available in development mode over the last few releases, but since they are now in the release build, we will do a full roundup and talk about all the Kind features.
- Kind Installation: Install Kind from the status bar
- Manage Kind Clusters: Create and manage Kind clusters from Settings > Resources
- Using Kind: Deploying YAML and sharing images to a cluster
- Kind Ingress: Install a Contour ingress controller
- UX and UI Improvements: Updated preferences and telemetry prompt
Podman Desktop 0.14 is now available. Click here to download it!
Release details
Kind Installation
Get Kind up and running in seconds! The Kind extension is now bundled as part of Podman Desktop 1421 and allows you to easily install Kind directly from the status bar 1257.
The installed kind CLI is available from the system shell 1516,
allowing you to open a terminal window to kind get clusters or work with other tools.
Manage Kind Clusters
Once Kind is installed (or if you already had it), you can manage your clusters in Settings > Resources. From here you can create Kind clusters, start/stop 1953 or delete 1977 them.
The Kind control plane runs as a container. You will see this container in the Container list and can also start or stop it from there.
Using Kind
Now that you have Kind installed and running, what can you do with it? If you like terminals, you can always open one up and use the Kind CLI to interact with your cluster.
Within Podman Desktop we have started with two ways to interact with the cluster. The first is the ability to play local YAML files on your Kind (or any other Kubernetes!) cluster 1261. This allows you to take existing Kubernetes YAML definitons - your deployments, services, or other objects - and deploy it to the cluster.
As you deploy pods, they will automatically appear in the list of Pods 1263, allowing you to start, stop, and interact them just like pods running on Podman.
One of the most common uses is to deploy a container that you have been running on Podman, and this will fail if the image is not available in Kind. To solve this we have made it easy to push images from Podman to Kind 1448.
Kind Ingress
If you deploy a pod to Kind, you are also going to want to reach it! To do this you will need to install a load balancer or ingress controller so that the pod is accessible from outside the cluster. We made it easy to install the Contour ingress controller while creating a Kind cluster 1675, so if you created your cluster with Podman Desktop it is already there!
We have several other Kind and Kubernetes features planned to expand the supported scenarios, but hopefully this makes it easy to get started with Kind and shows where we're headed. As always, feedback is appreciated!
UI and UX improvements
Updated Preferences
The Settings > Preferences page has been updated with a new design 1913, making it easier to see and change preferences. Changes are live, no more Update button.
Telemetry Prompt
The prompt to enable or disable telemetry has been moved from its own dialog into the Welcome screen. 1927 This is more usable, one less prompt, and solves a window-layering issue for some users!
Other notable enhancements
Documentation
Naturally, we have a section in the documentation just for Kind.
Notable bug fixes
- Avoid a dialog box if unable to check for updates 2062
- Unable to get to the Dashboard if Kind (or Kubernetes) cluster was not running 2052
Final notes
The complete list of issues fixed in this release is available here.
Get the latest release from the Downloads section of the website and boost your development journey with Podman Desktop. Additionally, visit the GitHub repository and see how you can help us make Podman Desktop better.