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Prerequisites & Setup

Install the tools you need to run the examples on Fedora or RHEL.

Setup

Everything runs in containers, so you do not need a local JDK, Python, Go, .NET or C++ toolchain to run an example. You need Docker Engine, a handful of CLI tools, and a Fedora or RHEL host. Local toolchains are optional and only needed if you want to build or test a service outside its container.

The instructions here cover Fedora and RHEL (and compatible rebuilds) only.

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Container runtime

The examples run on Docker Engine with the Compose plugin. Install it from Docker’s own Fedora or RHEL repository.

Fedora

Remove conflicting packages first. Fedora and distribution-provided Docker or Moby packages conflict with Docker’s own. dnf reports if none are installed.

sudo dnf remove docker docker-client docker-client-latest docker-common docker-latest \
  docker-latest-logrotate docker-logrotate docker-selinux docker-engine-selinux \
  docker-engine moby-engine podman-docker

Then install:

sudo dnf install -y dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf config-manager addrepo --from-repofile=https://download.docker.com/linux/fedora/docker-ce.repo
sudo dnf install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

RHEL

Remove conflicting packages first. dnf reports if none are installed.

sudo dnf remove docker docker-client docker-client-latest docker-common docker-latest \
  docker-latest-logrotate docker-logrotate docker-engine podman runc

Then install:

sudo dnf install -y dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/docker-ce.repo
sudo dnf install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Start the service and allow your user to use it

sudo systemctl enable --now docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and back in so the docker group applies to your session.

Verify:

docker --version
docker compose version
docker run --rm hello-world

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Kubernetes tools (optional)

The examples run on docker compose and need no cluster. Appendix R runs Example 05 on minikube; install these tools when you reach it. minikube uses the Docker driver on the same Docker Engine as compose, with the default Docker context.

minikube

Pinned to v1.39.0, with the binary checked against its published SHA-256 file:

MINIKUBE_VERSION=v1.39.0
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin && cd "$(mktemp -d)"
curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/releases/download/${MINIKUBE_VERSION}/minikube-linux-amd64"
echo "$(curl -fsSL "https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/releases/download/${MINIKUBE_VERSION}/minikube-linux-amd64.sha256")  minikube-linux-amd64" | sha256sum -c -
install minikube-linux-amd64 ~/.local/bin/minikube

kubectl

Pinned to v1.36.5 (the Kubernetes version the minikube profile runs), checked against its published SHA-256:

KUBECTL_VERSION=v1.36.5
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin && cd "$(mktemp -d)"
curl -fsSLO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/${KUBECTL_VERSION}/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
echo "$(curl -fsSL "https://dl.k8s.io/release/${KUBECTL_VERSION}/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl.sha256")  kubectl" | sha256sum -c -
install kubectl ~/.local/bin/kubectl

Helm

Helm 4, pinned, with the tarball checked against its published SHA-256 file:

HELM_VERSION=4.3.0
cd "$(mktemp -d)"
curl -fsSLO "https://get.helm.sh/helm-v${HELM_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz"
curl -fsSLO "https://get.helm.sh/helm-v${HELM_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz.sha256sum"
sha256sum -c "helm-v${HELM_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz.sha256sum"
tar -xzf "helm-v${HELM_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz" linux-amd64/helm
sudo install linux-amd64/helm /usr/local/bin/helm

Verify:

minikube version
kubectl version --client
helm version --short

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CLI tools

These are used by the verify.sh scripts and the “Drive it” sections in each example README.

curl, jq and git (required)

Used by every example to call APIs and format JSON output. Git is needed to clone the repository.

sudo dnf install -y curl jq git

python3

The verify.sh scripts use python3 to parse JSON. Fedora and RHEL ship it. Example 16 also needs the websockets and aiohttp packages; its script installs pinned copies into a cached virtual environment under ~/.cache/cndp-verify when the host Python lacks them (this needs python3 -m venv and network access on first run).

conftest 0.71.1 (required for example 12)

Example 12 evaluates its Rego policies with conftest, and verify.sh fails without it. Install the pinned release into ~/.local/bin, checking the archive against the release’s checksums.txt:

CONFTEST_VERSION=0.71.1
BASE="https://github.com/open-policy-agent/conftest/releases/download/v${CONFTEST_VERSION}"
cd "$(mktemp -d)"
curl -fsSLO "${BASE}/conftest_${CONFTEST_VERSION}_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz"
curl -fsSLO "${BASE}/checksums.txt"
grep " conftest_${CONFTEST_VERSION}_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz\$" checksums.txt | sha256sum -c -
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
tar -xzf "conftest_${CONFTEST_VERSION}_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz" -C ~/.local/bin conftest
conftest --version

~/.local/bin is on the default PATH for Fedora and RHEL login shells.

kcat (Kafka inspection)

Lists topics and reads or produces Kafka messages from the host (example 04 uses it); it replaces the removed kafka-ui. Optional, since kafka-console-consumer.sh inside the kafka container does the same:

sudo dnf install -y kcat

hey v0.1.5 (HTTP load testing)

Used by examples that demonstrate scaling or performance patterns. Download a binary from the hey releases page, or build it with Go:

go install github.com/rakyll/hey@v0.1.5

ghz v0.121.0 (gRPC load testing)

Used by examples with gRPC endpoints. Download the pinned binary from the ghz releases page:

GHZ_VERSION=0.121.0
BASE="https://github.com/bojand/ghz/releases/download/v${GHZ_VERSION}"
cd "$(mktemp -d)"
curl -fsSLO "${BASE}/ghz-linux-x86_64.tar.gz"
curl -fsSLO "${BASE}/ghz-linux-x86_64.tar.gz.sha256"
echo "$(cat ghz-linux-x86_64.tar.gz.sha256)  ghz-linux-x86_64.tar.gz" | sha256sum -c -
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
tar -xzf ghz-linux-x86_64.tar.gz -C ~/.local/bin ghz
ghz --version

newman 6.2.3 (Postman CLI, required for example 28)

Used by example 28 (Newman API testing). Requires Node.js. Install into the user prefix ~/.local so no sudo is needed:

sudo dnf install -y nodejs npm
npm install -g --prefix ~/.local newman@6.2.3 newman-reporter-htmlextra@1.23.1

Verify:

curl --version
jq --version
kcat -V 2>&1 | head -1          # optional
hey -h 2>&1 | head -1          # optional
ghz --version                   # optional
newman --version                # required for example 28
conftest --version              # required for example 12

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Local toolchains (optional)

Install these only if you want to build or test a service on the host instead of in its container.

Language	Install
Java (Spring Boot, Quarkus)	SDKMAN: curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" \| bash, then sdk install java 25-tem and sdk install maven; optional CLIs: sdk install quarkus 3.40.1 and sdk install springboot 4.1.1
Go 1.27.2	Official tarball from go.dev/dl: curl -fsSLO https://go.dev/dl/go1.27.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz && echo "ecbadb99091a3f46e31f5f934b068b1864eafa7995211b39eaddf76996045fe5 go1.27.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz" \| sha256sum -c - && sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go && sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.27.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz, then add /usr/local/go/bin to PATH. Every go.mod requires 1.27.2; an older go downloads it on demand with GOTOOLCHAIN=go1.27.2
.NET	sudo dnf install -y dotnet-sdk-10.0 (from the Fedora or RHEL repositories)
Python	sudo dnf install -y python3.14 and uv: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh \| sh
C++ (C++23)	Fedora 44: sudo dnf install -y gcc-c++ cmake ninja-build git make python3 (GCC 16.2, which supports C++23; Fedora has no gcc-toolset-15, and ninja-build 1.13.2 matches the pinned Ninja). Fedora’s cmake is 4.3.0, which satisfies the examples’ 3.31 minimum; the upstream CMake 4.4.4 binary is optional there and only matches the container toolchain exactly. RHEL 10: sudo dnf install -y gcc-toolset-15 git make python3, then source /opt/rh/gcc-toolset-15/enable (GCC 15.2). RHEL ships cmake 3.31 and ninja 1.11, so take CMake 4.4.4 and Ninja 1.13.2 from the upstream release binaries: curl -fsSLO https://github.com/Kitware/CMake/releases/download/v4.4.4/cmake-4.4.4-linux-x86_64.tar.gz && echo "e5bb807f7728cb60cd8b27ebc97a2edb469b68655f21e844a600c3575b76f5bb cmake-4.4.4-linux-x86_64.tar.gz" \| sha256sum -c - && sudo tar -C /opt -xzf cmake-4.4.4-linux-x86_64.tar.gz, curl -fsSLO https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases/download/v1.13.2/ninja-linux.zip && echo "5749cbc4e668273514150a80e387a957f933c6ed3f5f11e03fb30955e2bbead6 ninja-linux.zip" \| sha256sum -c - && sudo unzip -d /opt/cmake-4.4.4-linux-x86_64/bin ninja-linux.zip, then add /opt/cmake-4.4.4-linux-x86_64/bin to PATH. Both: Conan 2.33.0 in a venv: python3 -m venv ~/.venvs/conan && ~/.venvs/conan/bin/pip install conan==2.33.0 (or pipx install conan==2.33.0)

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Resource requirements

Stack	Memory	Disk	CPU
Docker compose examples	~2-4 GB	~3 GB for images	2+ cores
Minikube, Example 05 (optional)	8 GB for the node	40 GB (profile disk)	4+ cores

The LGTM observability stack (Grafana, Loki, Tempo, Mimir) is the heaviest shared component at ~1.5 GB.

Host ports

The examples publish service ports on the host. Prometheus-compatible metrics (Mimir) are on host port 19090, because Cockpit holds 9090 on Fedora and RHEL. All other ports are as listed in each example README.

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Quick setup check

Run this to verify everything is ready:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
printf "Container runtime:\n"
docker --version 2>/dev/null || echo "  MISSING"
printf "\nCompose:\n"
docker compose version 2>/dev/null || echo "  MISSING"
printf "\nDocker daemon:\n"
docker info >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "  ok" || echo "  NOT RUNNING (or user not in the docker group)"
printf "\nCLI tools:\n"
for cmd in curl jq git python3 conftest newman; do
  printf "  %-10s %s\n" "$cmd" "$(command -v $cmd >/dev/null && echo 'ok' || echo 'MISSING')"
done
printf "\nOptional:\n"
for cmd in minikube kubectl helm hey ghz; do
  printf "  %-10s %s\n" "$cmd" "$(command -v $cmd >/dev/null && echo 'ok' || echo 'not installed')"
done

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What you do NOT need

All application code runs inside containers built from Red Hat UBI base images. You do not need to install any of these locally to run the examples:

• Java / JDK
• Python
• Go
• .NET SDK
• C++ toolchain

The only local tools you need are Docker Engine and the CLI utilities listed in this guide.