You can use the vctl command-line utility in Workstation Pro to manage containers. In addition, vctl provides support for KIND so that KIND can use vctl container as "nodes" to run local Kubernetes clusters.

The vctl is a command-line utility bundled inside the Workstation Pro application, it is supported only on Windows 10 1809 or later. Workstation Pro on hosts with Linux OS or Windows OS earlier than Windows 10 1809 don't support the vctl CLI.

Related executables come bundled in the Workstation Pro application and are available in C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation folder by default.

The three executables of the vctl command-line utility are summarized in the following section.

containerd.exe

This is a runtime daemon that runs in the background. The containerd daemon must be started first before you can run any container related operation. To start it, use the vctl system start command and to stop it use the vctl system stop command.

containerd-shim-crx-v2.exe

When a new container is started, a new containerd-shim-crx-v2 process is launched and works as an adapter between the container in CRX VM and the containerd daemon.

bin/vctl.exe

It is a command-line utility that runs in the foreground and relays the user input to the containerd daemon.

Note: The vctl CLI runs every container inside a lightweight virtual machine, called CRX VM. By default, a CRX VM is created and starts up when a container starts. It shuts down and is removed when the container stops. The name of the CRX VM is same as the container.