Rancher is a popular open-source platform for managing and deploying containerized applications on Kubernetes. By using cert-manager and Let’s Encrypt, we will ensure that all communication with the Rancher server is secure and encrypted.
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Prerequsites Domain Name Ability to make DNS Changes Ubuntu Virtual Machine Port 80 & 443 must be accessible for Let’s Encrypt to verify and issue certificates Pick a subdomain and create a DNS entry pointing to the IP Address that will be assigned to the Rancher Server
Head over to your DNS Provider and create an A record
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dig +short replace_with_subdomain
Update Package Repository and Upgrade Packages 1
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Install required packages 1
sudo apt-get -y install gnupg2 ca-certificates curl apt-transport-https iptables
Install Helm v3 Additional Information - https://helm.sh/docs/intro/install/
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curl https://baltocdn.com/helm/signing.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/helm.gpg > /dev/null
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https --yes
echo "deb [arch= $( dpkg --print-architecture ) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/helm.gpg] https://baltocdn.com/helm/stable/debian/ all main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/helm-stable-debian.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install helm
Install kubectl Additional Information - https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl-linux/
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sudo apt update
sudo apt install ca-certificates curl apt-transport-https -y
sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/kubernetes-archive-keyring.gpg https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/kubernetes-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.kubernetes.io/ kubernetes-xenial main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install kubectl -y
Install RKE2 Cluster Additional Information - https://docs.rke2.io/
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sudo bash
curl -sfL https://get.rke2.io | sh -
exit
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sudo systemctl enable rke2-server.service
sudo systemctl start rke2-server.service
sudo journalctl -u rke2-server -f
mkdir ~/.kube
sudo cp /etc/rancher/rke2/rke2.yaml ~/.kube/config
sudo chown $USER :$USER ~/.kube/config
chmod 400 ~/.kube/config
kubectl get pods -A
Install cert-manager Additional Information - https://cert-manager.io/docs/installation/
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helm repo add jetstack https://charts.jetstack.io
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager --namespace cert-manager --create-namespace --set installCRDs = true
Install Rancher Additional Information - https://docs.ranchermanager.rancher.io/
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kubectl create ns cattle-system
helm repo add rancher-latest https://releases.rancher.com/server-charts/latest
helm repo update
helm install rancher rancher-latest/rancher --namespace cattle-system --set hostname = HOSTNAME --set bootstrapPassword = PASSWORD --set ingress.tls.source= letsEncrypt --set letsEncrypt.email= EMAIL_ADDRESS --set letsEncrypt.ingress.class= nginx
kubectl -n cattle-system rollout status deploy/rancher
watch kubectl get pods -A
Access Rancher User Interface 