This guide demonstrates how to add AWS cloud credentials in Rancher and use them to provision an RKE2 cluster in AWS.

Overview

AWS RKE2 Cluster in Rancher

Rancher makes it easy to provision and manage downstream RKE2 clusters in AWS. By adding your AWS credentials to Rancher, you can create a fully managed RKE2 cluster tailored to your specific needs.

Adding AWS Cloud Credentials

Prerequisites

  • An AWS account with sufficient permissions to create resources (e.g., EC2 instances, VPCs, and security groups).
  • Rancher installed and accessible.

Steps to Add AWS Cloud Credentials

  1. Log in to Rancher: Access your Rancher installation via its hostname (e.g., https://rancher.your-domain.com).

  2. Navigate to Cloud Credentials:

    • Click on the top-right menu.
    • Select Cloud Credentials under Cluster Management.

  3. Add AWS Credentials:

    • Click Add Cloud Credential.
    • Choose Amazon EC2 as the cloud credential type.
    • Enter the required details:
      • Access Key: Your AWS access key ID.
      • Secret Key: Your AWS secret access key.
    • Click Create.

Provisioning the RKE2 Cluster

Steps to Provision an RKE2 Cluster in AWS

  1. Navigate to Cluster Management:

    • In the Rancher UI, click on Cluster Management.
    • Select Create to start the cluster provisioning process.

  2. Select RKE2 and AWS:

    • Choose RKE2/K3s as the cluster type.
    • Select Amazon EC2 as the cloud provider.

  3. Configure Cluster Details:

    • Enter a cluster name (e.g., rke2-aws-cluster).
    • Choose the AWS region where the cluster will be deployed.
    • Select your previously added AWS cloud credentials.

  4. Node Configuration:

    • Define the node pool configuration:
      • Instance Type: Choose an instance type (e.g., t3.medium for small clusters).
      • Node Count: Set the number of control-plane and worker nodes (e.g., 2 control-plane nodes and 3 worker nodes).
    • Configure advanced options as needed (e.g., SSH key pair, disk size).

  5. Network Configuration:

    • Specify the VPC and subnets or allow Rancher to create a new VPC.
    • Configure security group rules to allow cluster communication.

  6. Review and Launch:

    • Review the configuration summary.
    • Click Create to start provisioning the cluster.

Testing and Validation

Accessing the Cluster

  1. Verify the cluster status in Rancher:

    • Navigate to Cluster Management and check the cluster state.
    • The status should show as Active once the provisioning is complete.

  2. Download the kubeconfig file:

    • Click on the cluster name.
    • Select Kubeconfig File to download the configuration for kubectl access.

  3. Access the cluster via kubectl:

    kubectl --kubeconfig=/path/to/kubeconfig get nodes

Testing Workloads

Deploy a test application to ensure the cluster is functional:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: nginx-test
  namespace: default
spec:
  containers:
  - name: nginx
    image: nginx:latest
    ports:
    - containerPort: 80

kubectl apply -f nginx-test.yaml
kubectl get pods

References