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Rancher can be installed on a single node or a Kubernetes cluster. To provide high availability to Rancher, install Rancher on a supported Kubernetes distribution, including RKE2, RKE1, K3s, AKS, EKS, and GKE. The list may change due to its rapid development. For the most up-to-date information, consult the support matrix at SUSE Rancher Support Matrix.
Kubernetes can run on either bare metal or virtual machines. Using virtual machines provides the advantages of vSphere’s comprehensive management, monitoring, data protection, and disaster recovery capabilities. PowerStore enhances performance by supporting vVols with NVMe protocols. Rancher’s integration with vSphere delivers a cloud-like experience on-premises, enabling dynamic provisioning and scaling for your Kubernetes cluster. Additionally, a single PowerStore system can service both virtual machines and container workloads, thus streamlining your infrastructure and boosting operational efficiency.
Before starting the installation, review the following resources for essential information:
This paper guides you through setting up Rancher on a local RKE2 Kubernetes cluster using VMware vSphere for the Kubernetes nodes.
Afterward, we will use Rancher to deploy a downstream Kubernetes cluster and install the PowerStore CSI driver from the Rancher integrated app catalog into this cluster. We will then create storage classes for PowerStore T system and request storage resources. Finally, we walk through deploying a database application that references the persistent volumes from PowerStore.
Here is a simple diagram that illustrates the components in an environment managed by Rancher.