Rancher gives you several options for running Kubernetes. You can use these or any other CNCF-certified Kubernetes distribution.

• K3s - Lightweight Kubernetes that works both in the datacenter and resource-constrained environments like IoT and the Edge.
• RKE - A complete installation of Kuberntets that runs inside of Docker containers.
• RKE2 - The next generation of RKE, using ContainerD and FIPS compliant.
• K3d - Runs a multi-node Kubernetes cluster within Docker. Designed for local development operations.

For this you'll need to be logged into a Linux system.

curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -

For this you'll need a Linux system you can SSH into. We'll use the k3sup command available from k3sup.dev. The defaults assume that you're using ~/.ssh/id_rsa as your key and connecting as the root user. If you need to change these or other defaults, see the output from k3sup install --help.

All k3sup needs to install K3s over SSH is the IP of the destination server. We're adding a release channel to make sure that we're running the stable release, and not the latest.

# replace this with the IP of your host

# Bash
export IP=10.68.0.143

# Fish
set -x IP 10.68.0.143

k3sup install --ip=$IP --k3s-channel=stable

Alternatively, to install a specific version:

export VERSION=v1.19.4+k3s1
k3sup install --ip=$IP --k3s-version=$VERSION

You can add additional configuration. See k3sup --help and k3s help server, as well as the Rancher Documentation

k3sup install --ip=$IP --k3s-version=$VERSION --local-path=config.a.yaml --context a

If you're using a local installation of K3s, the kubectl binary already points to the configuration file, located at /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml.

If you're using a remote system installed via k3sup, the config was locally saved in the current working directory. Point the KUBECONFIG environment variable at it.

# Bash
export KUBECONFIG=$(pwd)/kubeconfig

# Fish
set -x KUBECONFIG (pwd)/kubeconfig

Verify your installation and that you're pointed to the right cluster.

kubectl get nodes

kubectl supports plugins that can help make things easier. I'll be using kubectl neat when showing manifests. You can install plugins with krew.

You'll also want to start using aliases. See this repository for a system of aliases that will make your life easier.

Kui is a wonderful utility for interacting with Kubernetes that gives you rich information for exploring the cluster and its workloads.

Kubie is a utility for switching between Kubernetes clusters and contexts (namespaces) with isolation between terminal windows. It works great with Kui to keep it pointed at the right cluster.

kubie ctx a  # will search KUBECONFIG for the a context
kubie ctx -f config.a.yaml  # will use the contents of this config
kubie ns training # will switch to the "training" namespace

I have these aliased:

alias kcc="kubie ctx"
alias ns="kubie ns"

Smallest unit you can deploy in Kubernetes. The actual workload.

kubectl apply -f 01-pod/pod.yaml
kubectl logs myapp-pod
kubectl get po -w
kubectl delete po myapp-pod

Watch how Kubernetes tries to restart the Pod and then backs off the restart timer.

kubectl get po -w

Creates a ReplicaSet that in turn creates and manages one or more Pods

kubectl create deploy nginx --image=nginx:1.19-alpine
kubectl get deploy
kubectl get replicaset
kubectl get po

Describe the pod, look at the image

kubectl describe po/<pod name>
kubectl get po/<pod name> -o yaml | less

Scale the Deployment manually

kubectl scale deploy/nginx --replicas=3
kubectl rollout status deploy/nginx
kubectl get deploy
kubectl get po

What happens if we upgrade with a bad image?

kubectl set image deploy/nginx nginx=nginx:1.20-alpne
kubectl rollout status deploy/nginx
kubectl get po
kubectl rollout undo deploy/nginx

We can redo the upgrade from the manifest.

kubectl edit deploy/nginx

ConfigMaps allow us to override data within the container.

kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -- ash
cat /usr/share/html/index.html

We can see that the HTML file is the default. We can override this directory with a ConfigMap

cd 02-deployment/base
cat configs/index.html
cat deployment.yaml  # how is the ConfigMap created?

A tool called Kustomize, built into kubectl can assemble all of this from templates.

cat kustomize.yaml
kustomize build . | less

We can see the ConfigMap was generated with a unique name. This forces a rolling update when the ConfigMap changes, which keeps us in line with GitOps and the repository being the source of truth.

Kustomize allows us to create and template content, reducing human error present when copying things between manifests.

We'll use this in a later section.

Let's deploy something that will show us interesting traffic.

cd 03-rancher-demo
cat kustomization.yaml
kubectl apply -k .

# Bash
export PORT=$(kubectl get service/demo -o jsonpath='{.spec.ports[0].nodePort}')

# Fish
set -x PORT (kubectl get service/demo -o jsonpath='{.spec.ports[0].nodePort}')

# Use $IP from the top of this README
curl -I $IP:$PORT

# Open $IP:$PORT in a browser

We can demonstrate the benefits of Kustomize and a ConfigMap by editing kustomization.yaml and changing the value of COW_COLOR.

vi kustomization.yaml
# change COW_COLOR to pink and save

kubectl apply -k .
kubectl get po -w

If we look at the Deployment YAML now, we'll see that the configMapRef was updated to use the new ConfigMap that Kustomize created. This gives us a clear path for rolling back if we want. If we had updated in place, the Deployment wouldn't have changed, and we wouldn't be able to roll back the change to the configuration.

kubectl rollout undo deploy demo

The cows are yellow again.

# still in 03-rancher-demo
kubectl apply -f ingress.yaml
kubectl get ingress
curl -I -H 'Host: rancher-demo.home.monach.us' http://$IP/

Delete it all.

helm repo add jetstack https://charts.jetstack.io
helm repo add rancher-stable https://releases.rancher.com/server-charts/stable
helm repo update

helm install cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager --namespace cert-manager --set installCRDs=true --create-namespace

kubectl get po -n cert-manager -w

# Bash
export HOSTNAME=rancher-training.home.monach.us

# Fish
set -x $HOSTNAME rancher-training.home.monach.us

helm install rancher rancher-stable/rancher --namespace cattle-system --set hostname=$HOSTNAME --create-namespace

• Cluster Explorer
• Apps
• Continuous Delivery

Remember Kustomize? We'll use it now.

• Show the kustomization files and how they work together
• Deploy with Fleet: https://github.com/rancher/k8s-intro-training with the 02-deployment folder