Rancher 2.4+ installation notes

I really like Rancher. Used in v1.x, now I’m back at a point where I might need it. Also I want to pitch it to my colleagues, which means I need to have a quick and dirty setup to fool around with. The Rancher Terraform (love it) modules are huge, and I wanted to have a simpler method (which I understand more) for my first training session with the guys.

These are my notes:

• The Rancher Docker Container has its state under /var/lib/rancher.
• For HA Rancher relies on a defined k8s service (probably just a DNS-resolvable service) called CATTLE_PEER_SERVICE
  • HA installations are currently only supported in k8s clusters using helm as installation method
• The Rancher management server can only be run on Kubernetes cluster in an infrastructure provider where Kubernetes is installed using K3s or RKE
• Installing Rancher in an Azure Container instance does not work with persistent data. Azure Files doesn’t support symlinks, which Rancher needs. Of course that would have been my preferred way, because super quick and super slim.
• Installing Rancher using the quickstart repo is a PITA on a Mac. For two reasons: First you have to install the “rke” provider manually (really annoying), and second terraform can’t import another module And basically a shit idea if you want to pitch this to your colleagures. You have to clone, install plugins, wrap modules, do ssh, all sorts of stuff which is just. Too. Complicated.