Rancher is an open-source container management platform, providing a graphical interface making container management easier. It has a
smaller footprint and makes the installation process much easier.
Server Requirements
We will be building a 3 node cluster comprised of one master and 2 worker nodes:
| Hostname |
Ip Address |
Host Specifications |
Operating System |
| kube-master |
192.168.1.160 |
2 CPU, 5GB RAM, 30GB HDD |
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS |
| kube-node1 |
192.168.1.161 |
2 CPU, 7GB RAM, 30GB HDD |
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS |
| kube-node2 |
192.168.1.162 |
2 CPU, 7GB RAM, 30GB HDD |
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS |
NOTE: The above should be updated based on your specification
Package Installation and System Configuration
Perform these tasks on all 3 hosts. This assumes you are logged in as a user with sudo privilleges.
Update Hostname, Hosts file and install base packages:
Update Hostname with this command sudo hostnamectl set-hostname <Hostname>
Update Hosts file
sudo bash -c 'cat <<EOF>> /etc/hosts
192.168.1.160 kube-master
192.168.1.161 kube-node1
192.168.1.162 kube-node2
EOF'
Install Packages
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-key fingerprint 0EBFCD88
sudo add-apt-repository \
"deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
$(lsb_release -cs) \
stable"
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io jq net-tools npm \
docker-compose ntp ntpdate linux-image-extra-virtual ca-certificates curl software-properties-common
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York
sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo reboot
Install RKe2 Master:
Install Helm3.
sudo curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/master/scripts/get-helm-3 | bash
Install RKe2
curl -sfL https://get.rke2.io | sudo sh -
Enable & start service
sudo systemctl enable rke2-server.service
sudo systemctl start rke2-server.service
Create Kube Config
mkdir ~/.kube
sudo cp /etc/rancher/rke2/rke2.yaml ~/.kube/config
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER ~/.kube
sudo bash -c 'cat <<EOF>> /etc/profile
PATH=$PATH:/var/lib/rancher/rke2/bin
EOF'
Wait for a few seconds and check for rke2 join token
sudo cat /var/lib/rancher/rke2/server/node-token
if all goes well, you should see something like K1035fb94adee7823fcc6d1d5af6fd1f0f10611348a14dc2e7b8ccd2fcdcff36703::server:83b140f0544ac7598acb7b2e2d46a29f
Install RKe2 Agents:
Initialize and install agent
curl -sfL https://get.rke2.io | INSTALL_RKE2_TYPE="agent" sudo sh -
Update & configure agent
sudo mkdir -p /etc/rancher/rke2/
sudo bash -c 'cat <<EOF> /etc/rancher/rke2/config.yaml
server: https://kube-master:9345
token: K1035fb94adee7823fcc6d1d5af6fd1f0f10611348a14dc2e7b8ccd2fcdcff36703::server:83b140f0544ac7598acb7b2e2d46a29f
EOF'
Enable & start agent
sudo systemctl enable rke2-agent.service
sudo systemctl start rke2-agent.service
Master RKe2 Verification:
Log back into the master and type this command kubectl get nodes. You should see this
NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION
kube-master Ready control-plane,etcd,master 12m v1.20.7+rke2r2
kube-node1 Ready <none> 3m12s v1.20.7+rke2r2
kube-node2 Ready <none> 3m18s v1.20.7+rke2r2
Check all pods. Type kubectl get pods -A:
NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
kube-system etcd-kube-master 1/1 Running 1 50m
kube-system helm-install-rke2-canal-xx5xp 0/1 Completed 0 50m
kube-system helm-install-rke2-coredns-mhtt2 0/1 Completed 0 50m
kube-system helm-install-rke2-ingress-nginx-q2jkl 0/1 Completed 0 50m
kube-system helm-install-rke2-kube-proxy-gph6v 0/1 Completed 0 50m
kube-system helm-install-rke2-metrics-server-wslgf 0/1 Completed 0 50m
kube-system kube-apiserver-kube-master 1/1 Running 1 50m
kube-system kube-controller-manager-kube-master 1/1 Running 1 50m
kube-system kube-proxy-d98qh 1/1 Running 0 41m
kube-system kube-proxy-jfwhb 1/1 Running 1 50m
kube-system kube-proxy-v5pz8 1/1 Running 0 41m
kube-system kube-scheduler-kube-master 1/1 Running 1 50m
kube-system rke2-canal-7j6tt 2/2 Running 2 50m
kube-system rke2-canal-ddhjp 2/2 Running 0 41m
kube-system rke2-canal-vvgbd 2/2 Running 0 41m
kube-system rke2-coredns-rke2-coredns-675b5596bc-xhtfb 1/1 Running 1 50m
kube-system rke2-ingress-nginx-controller-54946dd48f-kl677 1/1 Running 2 49m
kube-system rke2-ingress-nginx-default-backend-5795954f8-mzjf4 1/1 Running 1 49m
kube-system rke2-metrics-server-559dc47bd8-lrs6b 1/1 Running 1 49m
Your cluster should be ready for use
Reference Links