Introduction to Rancher: Features, Installation, and Application Deployment

1. Rancher Overview

Rancher is a container management platform designed for companies using containers, providing a full‑stack solution to deploy and manage Docker and Kubernetes without assembling multiple open‑source components from scratch.

Rancher API Server Functions

The API server, built on an embedded Kubernetes API server and etcd, offers user management, authentication, role‑based access control, cluster operations, Helm chart application store, project and namespace management, and pipeline configuration.

Monitoring and Alerting

Rancher integrates with logging tools (e.g., ELK), monitors clusters via Prometheus, and displays alerts when issues arise.

2. Rancher Installation

Installation can be performed on an existing Kubernetes cluster. Example using Docker:

[root@k8s-master01 ~]# docker run --privileged -d --name rancher --restart=unless-stopped -p 80:80 -p 443:443 -v /opt/rancher:/var/lib/rancher rancher/rancher:v2.5.11
[root@k8s-master01 ~]# docker ps | grep rancher

Key flags: --privileged runs the container as root; --restart=unless‑stopped restarts the container automatically unless it was manually stopped.

Binding a Kubernetes Cluster in Rancher UI

Access the Rancher UI (e.g., https://192.168.1.1) and configure a Kubernetes cluster, including authentication, RBAC, monitoring, and logging integrations.

Deploying an Application

Through the Rancher UI you can create an application, verify its deployment, and view pod logs.