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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteTo install CodeReady Containers (CRC), now distributed by Red Hat as OpenShift Local, download and extract its Linux archive, put the crc executable on your user’s PATH, install the required virtualization and networking packages, then run crc setup and crc start as a normal user. For the OpenShift preset, plan for at least 4 physical CPU cores, 10.5 GB of free memory, and 35 GB of storage. You also need a Red Hat account to download the OpenShift pull secret required at startup.
CRC runs a minimal, single-node OpenShift environment on a local computer for development and testing. It is not a production-scale OpenShift cluster.
Check Linux and hardware requirements first
CRC’s documented Linux support covers the latest two minor releases of RHEL, CentOS 8 and 9, and stable Fedora. Ubuntu 18.04 and later and Debian 10 and later are marked unsupported; they may work with manual host setup, but are outside the documented supported distributions.
| Preset | Minimum CPU | Minimum free memory | Minimum storage |
|---|---|---|---|
openshift |
4 physical cores | 10.5 GB | 35 GB |
okd |
4 physical cores | 10.5 GB | 35 GB |
microshift |
2 CPUs | 4 GB | 35 GB |
CRC does not support nested virtualization. On RHEL, CentOS, or Fedora, the documented host packages are libvirt and NetworkManager. On unsupported Ubuntu or Debian systems, the listed package names are qemu-kvm, libvirt-daemon, libvirt-daemon-system, and network-manager; installing them does not change the distribution’s support status.
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Install CRC on Linux
- Download and extract CRC. Get the current CRC/OpenShift Local archive from Red Hat and extract it. The archive filename and extraction command depend on the release you download.
- Make
crcavailable on your PATH. Place the extracted executable in a directory included in your user’sPATH, or add its directory toPATH. - Install host dependencies. On RHEL, CentOS, or Fedora, run:
sudo dnf install libvirt NetworkManager - Prepare the host. From a normal user account that can use
sudo, run:crc setup
Do not run thecrcexecutable as root. Setup configures the host for CRC, including its DNS behavior. - Start the cluster. Run
crc start. For the OpenShift preset, provide the user pull secret when prompted. Download it from the Pull Secret section of the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console; a Red Hat account is required. - Wait for readiness. Allow at least four minutes for the single-node cluster to start its containers and Operators before serving requests. Startup may take longer in some circumstances, including certificate renewal.
For a typical supported Fedora, RHEL, or CentOS host, the core command sequence is:
sudo dnf install libvirt NetworkManager
crc setup
crc start
Choose and size a preset
Linux selects the openshift preset by default. CRC also documents okd and microshift; only one preset can be active at a time. The OpenShift and OKD presets have the same documented minimum resource requirements, while MicroShift has lower minimums.
The documented default allocation is 4 CPUs and 10752 MiB of memory. To change the persistent configuration, stop the instance first, set the values, then start it again:
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crc config set cpus <number>
crc config set memory <number-in-mib>
crc start
Alternatively, pass --cpus and --memory to crc start for a start-specific allocation. Changing presets is different from resizing: delete the existing instance before selecting another preset.
Why does crc start need a pull secret?
The OpenShift preset requires the user pull secret obtained from the Pull Secret section of the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console. The secret is tied to a Red Hat account. If you do not yet have a Red Hat account or pull secret, obtain those before starting the OpenShift preset. Do not substitute the cluster login credentials for the pull secret; they serve different purposes.
Connect to the cluster
Use crc console to open the web console. To display the cluster credentials, run crc console --credentials. For command-line access, expose CRC’s embedded oc client and log in:
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crc oc-env
oc login -u developer https://api.crc.testing:6443
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The developer identity is intended for creating projects and deploying applications. Use kubeadmin for administrative actions. CRC provides an internal image registry for local image workflows; after creating or selecting a project, the documented login command is oc registry login --insecure=true.
Understand DNS, networking, and proxy requirements
CRC uses the crc.testing and apps-crc.testing DNS domains. The API endpoint is api.crc.testing, and application routes use names beneath apps-crc.testing. crc setup configures host DNS, and CRC uses gvisor-tap-vsock user-mode networking by default.
- Keep these network ranges free of collisions with other host, VPN, or local network ranges:
10.217.0.0/22,10.217.4.0/23, and192.168.126.0/24. - VPNs can interfere with startup or access. When diagnosing a failure, try starting CRC on a reliable network without a VPN.
- For proxy environments, configure
http-proxy,https-proxy, andno-proxy. SOCKS proxies are unsupported. - To allow workloads in the cluster to reach a service running on the host, set
crc config set host-network-access true, restart CRC, and connect from the cluster tohost.crc.testing:<port>.
Stop, restart, and remove an instance
crc stop shuts down the VM and runtime without deleting the instance. Use crc start to bring it up again. crc delete removes the instance, so save any data you need before running it. Preset changes require deletion before starting with the new preset.
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Troubleshoot startup, certificates, and bundle mismatches
Inspect the CRC log
For detailed diagnostics, inspect ~/.crc/crc.log. If startup or cluster access fails, check the log alongside host package setup, available resources, network-range conflicts, and VPN or proxy conditions.
Allow for certificate renewal
Each released CRC executable embeds OpenShift certificates that expire one year after that release. At startup, CRC attempts automatic renewal, which can add up to five minutes. If renewal fails, download the latest release, save needed data, then run crc delete, crc setup, and crc start.
Recover from a bundle-version mismatch or unknown problem
A bundle-version mismatch is resolved by deleting the old instance and starting again. For an unknown issue, the documented clean-state sequence is:
- Run
crc stop. - Save any data you need to keep.
- Run
crc delete. - Run
crc cleanup. - Run
crc setup, thencrc start.
Know what CRC is—and is not—suited for
CRC is intended for local development and testing, offering a small, single-node OpenShift-like environment rather than a full production installation. Monitoring is disabled by default; enabling it requires additional memory, with at least 14 GiB recommended for core functionality. Some resource-heavy Operators are also disabled by default and require an explicit administrative override.
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