Rancher Deep Dive

Welcome to my learning journey repository! You'll find easy-to-understand explanations and examples of various concepts that I've encountered on my path to growth and development. These resources have been organized and presented to be as helpful as possible. As I continue learning, I'll be updating the repository with new materials and insights. Feel free to fork it if you find it helpful. If you appreciate the effort that went into creating these resources, please consider leaving a ⭐. Thank you for visiting, and happy learning guys!

Quick Start

sudo docker run -d --restart=unless-stopped -p 80:80 -p 443:443 --privileged rancher/rancher

Table of Contents

An introduction to Rancher and Kubernetes

2. A high-level overview of Rancher and Kubernetes

The purpose of the Rancher server
What RKE and RKE2 are
An explanation of RKE
An explanation of RKE2
What K3s is
The role of RancherD
The controllers running inside Rancher server pods
The function of Cattle agents
How Rancher manages nodes and clusters
An overview of kube-apiserver, kubecontroller-manager, kubescheduler, etcd, and kubelet
How the current state and desired state work together
A summary

3. Setting up a single-node Rancher instance

What a single-node Rancher installation is
Requirements and limitations
Rules for designing a solution
Steps for installation
Installing Docker
Preparing SSL certificates
Starting the Rancher server
Migrating to an HA setup
Backing up the current Rancher server
Starting the transition to a new cluster
Cleaning up/rolling back
A summary

4. Creating RKE and RKE2 clusters

An explanation of RKE clusters
The history of RKE
How RKE works
An explanation of RKE2 clusters
The role of RancherD
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Setting up RKE clusters
Setting up RKE2 clusters
Install steps for RKE
Install steps for RKE2
Configuring an external load balancer (HAProxy)
TCP mode
HTTP/HTTPS mode
Configuring MetalLB
Installation
Configuration
A summary

5. Deploying Rancher on a hosted Kubernetes cluster

Understanding hosted Kubernetes clusters
Requirements and limitations
Amazon EKS
Google's GKE
Azure's AKS
Rules for designing a solution
Setting up a hosted Kubernetes cluster on Amazon EKS
Setting up a hosted Kubernetes cluster on Google's GKE
Setting up a hosted Kubernetes cluster on Azure's AKS
Installing and upgrading Rancher
Installing Rancher
Upgrading Rancher
The Rancher Backup Operator
Installation
Creating a backup
A summary

6. Creating an RKE cluster using Rancher

What a Rancher-managed cluster is
The origin of Rancher-managed clusters
How Rancher manages nodes
How Rancher manages a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Rancher-created managed nodes
Existing nodes
Rules for designing a solution
Setting up an RKE cluster on AWS
Setting up an RKE cluster on GCP
Preparing for nodes to join Rancher(cohesive)
Preparing the infrastructure provider
Steps for creating an RKE cluster using Rancher
Deploying a cluster using node pools
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

7. Deploying a hosted cluster with Rancher

How Rancher can manage a hosted cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Setting up a hosted cluster on Amazon EKS with Rancher
Setting up a hosted cluster on Google's GKE with Rancher
Setting up a hosted cluster on Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with Rancher
Preparing the cloud provider
Setting up a hosted cluster on Amazon EKS
Setting up a hosted cluster on Google's GKE
Setting up a hosted cluster on AKS
Installation steps
Setting up a hosted cluster on Amazon EKS with Rancher
Setting up a hosted cluster on Google's GKE with Rancher
Setting up a hosted cluster on AKS with Rancher
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

8. Importing an externally managed cluster into Rancher

What an externally managed cluster is
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Importing an externally managed cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

9. Installing a Kubernetes cluster with Rancher on AWS

Understanding the different options for installing a cluster on AWS
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Preparing the infrastructure provider
Installation steps
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

10. Installing a Kubernetes cluster with Rancher on GCP

Understanding the different options for installing a cluster on GCP
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Preparing the infrastructure provider
Installation steps
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

11. Installing a Kubernetes cluster with Rancher on Azure

Understanding the different options for installing a cluster on Azure
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Preparing the infrastructure provider
Installation steps
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

12. Upgrading a Kubernetes cluster

Understanding the different options for upgrading a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Preparing for the upgrade
Performing the upgrade
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

13. Backing up and restoring a cluster

Understanding the different options for backing up and restoring a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Backing up a cluster
Restoring a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

14. Scaling a cluster

Understanding the different options for scaling a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Scaling a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

15. Monitoring a cluster

Understanding the different options for monitoring a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Setting up monitoring for a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

16. Logging for a cluster

Understanding the different options for logging for a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Setting up logging for a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

17. Networking for a cluster

Understanding the different options for networking for a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Networking setup for a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

18. Storage for a cluster

Understanding the different options for storage for a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Setting up storage for a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

19. Security for a cluster

Understanding the different options for security for a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Setting up security for a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

20. Deploying applications to a cluster

Understanding the different options for deploying applications to a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Deploying applications to a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

21. Upgrading applications on a cluster

Understanding the different options for upgrading applications on a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Upgrading applications on a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

22. Migrating applications to a cluster

Understanding the different options for migrating applications to a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Migrating applications to a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

23. Monitoring applications on a cluster

Understanding the different options for monitoring applications on a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Monitoring applications on a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

24. Troubleshooting applications on a cluster

Understanding the different options for troubleshooting applications on a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Troubleshooting applications on a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

25. Best practices for running applications on a cluster

Understanding the different options for best practices for running applications on a cluster
Requirements and limitations
Basic requirements
Design limitations and considerations
Rules for designing a solution
Best practices for running applications on a cluster
Ongoing maintenance tasks
A summary

Installing Rancher on DigitalOcean

Step 1: Create a new Droplet on DigitalOcean

Select the operating system of your choice, but make sure it is compatible with Rancher.

Step 2: SSH into your Droplet

Step 3: Install Docker

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install docker.io

Step 4: Start the Docker daemon

sudo systemctl start docker

Step 5: Verify that Docker is running

sudo docker run hello-world

Step 6: Run the Rancher server

sudo docker run -d --restart=unless-stopped -p 80:80 -p 443:443 rancher/rancher

Step 7: Open the Rancher login page in a web browser

Go to the IP address of your Droplet. You should see the Rancher login page.

Step 8: Complete the installation and set up your Rancher server

Follow the prompts to complete the installation and set up your Rancher server.

Installing Rancher on Google Cloud Platform

Step 1: Create a new GCP project

Step 2: Create a new Compute Engine instance

Select the operating system of your choice, but make sure it is compatible with Rancher.

Step 3: SSH into your Compute Engine instance

Step 4: Install Docker

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install docker.io

Step 5: Start the Docker daemon

  sudo systemctl start docker

Step 6: Verify that Docker is running

sudo docker run hello-world

Step 7: Run the Rancher server

  sudo docker run -d --restart=unless-stopped -p 80:80 -p 443:443 rancher/rancher

Step 8: Open the Rancher login page in a web browser

Go to the IP address of your Compute Engine instance. You should see the Rancher login page.

Step 9: Complete the installation and set up your Rancher server