vfkit
Overview
VFKit is an open-source program for macOS virtualization, optimized for lightweight virtual machines and container deployment.
Requirements
- Requires macOS 13 or later.
- Requires minikube version 1.36.0 or later.
Networking
The vfkit driver has two networking options: nat and vmnet-shared.
The nat network is always available, but it does not provide access
between minikube clusters. To access other clusters or run multi-node
cluster, you need the vmnet-shared network. The vmnet-shared network
requires vmnet-helper, see
installation instructions below.
Requirements
- Requires vmnet-helper.
Install vment-helper
curl -fsSL https://github.com/minikube-machine/vmnet-helper/releases/latest/download/install.sh | bash
The command downloads the latest release from github and installs it to
/opt/vmnet-helper.
Grant permission to run vmnet-helper manually (if said no to script above)
vmnet-helper must run as root to create a vmnet interface. To let users in the staff group run it without a password, install the default sudoers rule. The install script offers to add this automatically; if you declined, run the command below manually:
sudo install -m 0640 /opt/vmnet-helper/share/doc/vmnet-helper/sudoers.d/vmnet-helper /etc/sudoers.d/
You can change the sudoers configuration to allow access to specific users or other groups.
IMPORTANT: The vmnet-helper executable and the directory where it is installed must be owned by root and may not be modifiable by unprivileged users.
Usage
minikube start --driver vfkit --network vmnet-shared
Usage
minikube start --driver vfkit [--network nat]
The nat network is used by default if the --network option is not
specified.
Issues
Other
Troubleshooting
Run with logs
Run minikube start --driver vfkit --alsologtostderr -v=7 to debug crashes
Upgrade VFKit
brew update
brew upgrade vfkit
Troubleshooting the vmnet-shared network
Check for errors in vment-helper log:
$MINIKUBE_HOME/.minikube/machines/MACHINE-NAME/vmnet-helper.log
Check that the vmnet-helper process is running:
ps au | grep vmnet-helper | grep -v grep
If the helper is not running restart the minikube cluster.
For help with vment-helper please use the discussions.
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