---
title: 'Addon: Kata'
description: Canonical makes open source secure, reliable and easy to use, providing
  support for Ubuntu and a portfolio of enterprise-grade technologies. Founded in
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url: https://canonical.com/microk8s/docs/addon-kata?format=md
---

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# Addon: Kata

Homepage: **<https://katacontainers.io/>**
From MicroK8s version: **1.22+**
Supported arch: **amd64**

[Kata Containers](https://katacontainers.io/), is used to build a secure container runtime with lightweight virtual machines that feel and perform like containers, but provide stronger workload isolation using hardware virtualization technology as a second layer of defense. You can enable kata support with:

`microk8s enable kata`

The addon adds the `kata` `runtimeClassName` that allows you to specify what workloads should be started in Kata containers. For instance, the following manifest starts nginx in a Kata container:

```
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  labels:
    app: kata
  name: nginx-kata
spec:
  runtimeClassName: kata
  containers:
    - name: nginx
      image: nginx
```

By default the addon will install the Kata runtime via the [kata-containers snap](https://snapcraft.io/kata-containers). Alternatively, you can set the path of the where kata runtime is installed using the `--runtime-path` argument. The path you provide should include the `kata-runtime` binary:

```
microk8s enable kata --runtime-path=/path/to/runtime
```

On multi-node clusters the `microk8s enable kata` has to be called on each node so that the kata runtime gets enabled ont the desired nodes.

Last updated 5 years ago. [Help improve this document in the forum](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/addon-kata/17010).