Rancher for managing Kubernetes clusters

Rancher is an open-source container management platform that provides tools for managing and deploying Kubernetes clusters. Rancher can be a valuable tool for managing and operating Kubernetes clusters, especially when you need a unified and user-friendly interface for multiple clusters across multiple cloud providers.

We at Montel have used Rancher for years to simplify the way we build and manage Kubernetes clusters and to have a nice view of what’s happening under the hood of our clients’ Kubernetes setups.

There are also other tools for managing the Kubernetes clusters, but we think Rancher is the best solution available. Let me tell you why we like it so much.

User-Friendly Interface

Rancher’s web-based UI is super intuitive and simple. It is easy to interact with Kubernetes resources and perform tasks such as deploying applications and managing workloads through Rancher UI. Its user-friendly design doesn't diminish the capabilities of the kubectl command-line interface (CLI); in fact, it enhances them by providing unified access control to various CLI tools across different clusters.

In the picture you can see an example of a Rancher UI with a number of Kubernetes clusters.

Multi-Cluster App Management

Rancher allows you to manage multiple Kubernetes clusters from a single control interface. This streamlines management and monitoring a lot, especially if you have multiple clusters across different environments or cloud providers. Rancher also provides unified meters to all clusters (EKS, GKE, RKE).

App catalogs and other tools to ease deployment

Rancher provides an application catalog that simplifies the deployment of applications on Kubernetes clusters. You can choose from a wide range of Helm charts and applications and easily deploy them to your clusters.

Rancher also includes features for cluster provisioning, whether you want to create clusters on your own infrastructure or in the cloud. It supports various Kubernetes distributions, as well as cloud-native managed Kubernetes services.

Centralized authentication, access control, and monitoring

Rancher provides robust security features so you can control and manage access to your clusters. Rancher in addition, offers customizable Prometheus, Grafana, and Alertmanager as an option. Using Rancher makes it easy to set up alerts for our MontelCare on-call team.

Rancher also includes backup and disaster recovery capabilities for your Kubernetes clusters.

GitOps Integration

Rancher works well with GitOps workflows (that we at Montel like to follow), enabling you to manage and deploy Kubernetes resources using Git repositories. This ensures that your cluster configurations are version-controlled and auditable.

So Rancher is great, but it's important to note that while Rancher simplifies Kubernetes management, you still need to have some basic understanding of Kubernetes concepts to use Rancher effectively.

If you’d like to dig deeper into the amazing world of Rancher and Kubernetes, please don’t hesitate to contact us, we are happy to help!

Also, we offer a variety of Kubernetes services from Kubernetes assessment (for those of you who want your Kubernetes setup to be assessed by certified professionals) to a 2-day Kubernetes workshop to a comprehensive Kubernetes transformation for your organization. If these services interest you, our sales team, myynti@montel.fi. You can also book a 30-minute remote meeting with us directly by using this link. For free with no strings attached.