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Creating a Podman machine with Podman Desktop

On macOS and Windows, running the Podman container engine requires running a Linux virtual machine.

By default, Podman Desktop initializes a Podman machine with a standard configuration.

Consider creating a custom Podman machine to:

  • Control the assigned resources: CPUs, memory, and disk size.
  • Use a custom boot image.
  • Use the rootful connection by default, for example to run Kind.
  • (On Windows) Route the traffic through the network connection from your Windows session.

Prerequisites​

  • The Podman executable is installed.

Procedure​

  1. Go to Settings > Resources.

  2. In the Podman tile, click Create new.

  3. In the Create a Podman machine screen:

    1. Name: Enter a name, such as podman-machine-default.
    2. CPU(s): Select the number of CPUs.
    3. Memory: Select the memory size.
    4. Disk size: Select the disk size.
    5. Image path (Optional): Select a bootable image containing a virtual machine with Podman.
    6. Machine with root privileges: Enable to use the rootful connection by default. Required to use Kind on Windows.
    7. (On Windows) User mode networking (traffic relayed by a user process): Enable to route the traffic through the network connection from your Windows session. Required to access resources behind your VPN connection.
    8. Click Create

    Create a Podman machine