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# rke2
a
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h
RKE1 was brilliant! RKE2 is something to get used to and the future of RKE if you want a personal opinion. learning curve initially is a bit higher the RKE1 and there is a LOT of small things that will mess you around. Community support is limited (from what I have seen so far). You would be better of paying for support. But other then that - starting with RKE2 is a good choice when starting fresh. We swapped over to RKE2 about 14 months ago and we are not sorry
r
I have not used RKE1 so far
so I have no frame of reference πŸ™‚
I've been using k3os so far. some of the concepts used there will probably have made it into rke2
is there an RKE3, btw?
h
RKE2, also known as RKE Government, is Rancher's next-generation Kubernetes distribution. So no RKE2 is the newest version. The main differences here is RKE1 is docker based and RKE2 containerd based (embedded) due to the Kubernetes dropping docker support -> https://acloudguru.com/blog/engineering/kubernetes-is-deprecating-docker-what-you-need-to-know so this is why we upgraded
r
that sounds good actually. since I started out with k3os, suddenly having docker on my kubernetes nodes seems a bit weird πŸ˜„
I think I'll go with RKE2. Just gotta settle on distro to go below that. I'm using rancher/rancher manager btw, to set up the cluster. I think I saw the option to use RKE2 somewhere.
h
Personally we are not using the web GUI. The OS itself pretty much can be anything of choice. tested on ubuntu 19.x, oracle linux 7/8, rocky linux 8, redhat 8 . The RL/RHEL/OEL 9 OS's act weird. so dont think it supports those OS's yet
r
I'm avoiding RPM distros like the plague anyway
we do have some SLES12 machines though, since we have to use that for some stuff
h
There is 3 ways to install it, using their shell script (might want to start with that one until you are familiar with the ins and outs), the TAR method and the YUM method. The YUM method obviously only works on RHEL or RHEL clones.
r
oh I'm not going to install it manually
I'm gonna use the web UI for that
I'm hoping that's a thing πŸ˜„
h
You just made a SUSE engineer smile somewhere hahaha btw SUSE is RPM based πŸ™‚
r
i know
I said we have to use it. that's not an endorsement πŸ™‚
h
the CLI method is really quick - but understand the need for the UI. We have no need for it because we use OpenLens from our desktops instead
r
I need something that's repeatable, most of all
and entering stuff on a VM console is really not that
h
that is why we use the CLI method. I made ansible scripts that build it - so no need for a GUI. Installs real quick once you understand how RKE2 works
also our builds a agnostic in nature - any linux OS will do. since we dont always know what our clients will prefer
r
ok maybe i dont understand how rancher works yet, here's what I gather from my experience so far is 100% the "Boot2Docker (Legacy)" option.
h
if you want to go the ansible route - here is what someone else did. I did not use it, but i did get some ideas to make my own scripts simpler -> https://github.com/lablabs/ansible-role-rke2
r
but you can give it a VM template instead of using boot2docker. I was going to do that. I assume it installs docker+rke2 on that and then joins it to a cluster, right?
the ui, that is
h
So yes. We use VMWare and proxmox. The machine only needs to be accessible via SSH then your golden. Can even do this is Google, AWS, DigitalOcean etc
as far as i know (about the UI) since i dont use it. it needs docker (or podman) on a separate host. it will then orchestrate the build for you
r
what build?
h
cluster - the rancher UI will actually build you your cluster
r
from VM templates, though, right?
h
no it does not build you VM's - the VM's need to already be running
r
not sure how docker factors in, other than to host the rancher UI's server
h
using "what ever you want" to build from templates. I am using ansible to spin up VM's from a template
r
I'm using rancher manager for that right now πŸ˜„
it's using boot2docker to install them
works really well, it's just too old (2019), so it wont work with our nexus, which uses certs from letsencrypt, which had a recert in 2021
https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/plugins/builders/vsphere I have some prior experience with packer. maybe I'll use that
that way I'd have something I could actually check into Git
h
initially we used foreman to build the VM on VMware. I have never used packer before - or rather i could not get it to do what i wanted hahaha
There is packer, terraform and ansible (even powershell if you are desperate)
r
well to be fair my experience with packer is limited to modifying premade scripts called "bento" to do what I want πŸ™‚
h
I am rather likening terraform lately
r
h
ahh chef, we used to use puppet. but everything is ansible now - so adding more scripts and more stacks is not a option for us
r
this is not chef. this is just from the chef team
we're not using chef. we're using puppet
h
ooh then i must check it out - also seems like it has a single binary you can run - so script-able via something like ansible
r
I found this: https://github.com/David-VTUK/Rancher-Packer I got it to create and turn on an Ubuntu 22.04 VM, but it's stuck while booting, so there's more work to do. Might be related to a DHCP problem, gotta wait until tomorrow until I can have that fixed.
n
Coming into this late, Rancher 2.6.x supports provisioning RKE2 clusters on existing nodes. See https://docs.ranchermanager.rancher.io/pages-for-subheaders/use-existing-nodes
r
thanks, but that's the opposite of what I want πŸ™‚ I got it working now, though. turns out it wasn't a DHCP problem, it was just that packer instructed the VM to talk to 172.17.something, i.e. the docker-internal IP of the gitlab CI container packer was running in. solved that by switching to the cloud-init default of using an ISO image to pass the config.