tf-rancher-up

This repository maintains reusable terraform modules to deploy Rancher and Kubernetes clusters managed by Rancher.

The modules support major infrastructure/cloud platforms (AWS, VMware, Azure, GCP, DigitalOcean). Provisioning can be customized using different Kubernetes distributions (RKE, RKE2, K3S, EKS, AKS, GKE).

Architecture

The project uses two main concepts:

• Modules: Focused, reusable building blocks that handle specific infrastructure components.
• Recipes: Compositions of modules that provision full, end-to-end stacks.

We define clusters in two ways:

• Upstream (Management Cluster): The cluster where Rancher is installed and runs.
• Downstream (Workload Cluster): Clusters managed by Rancher where your applications run.

Quick Start: AWS RKE2 Upstream

Use these steps to set up a Rancher management cluster on AWS with RKE2.

1. Clone the repository and navigate to the recipe directory:

   git clone https://github.com/rancher/tf-rancher-up.git
   cd tf-rancher-up/recipes/upstream/aws/rke2

2. Create your configuration file:

   cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars

3. Edit terraform.tfvars with your AWS credentials, region, and desired settings.
4. Initialize and apply the configuration:

   terraform init
   terraform plan
   terraform apply

Quick Start: DigitalOcean RKE2 Upstream

Use these steps to set up a Rancher management cluster on DigitalOcean with RKE2.

1. Clone the repository and navigate to the recipe directory:

   git clone https://github.com/rancher/tf-rancher-up.git
   cd tf-rancher-up/recipes/upstream/digitalocean/rke2

2. Create your configuration file:

   cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars

3. Edit terraform.tfvars with your DigitalOcean token, region, and desired settings.
4. Initialize and apply the configuration:

   terraform init
   terraform plan
   terraform apply

Recipes

Provider	Upstream Recipes	Downstream/Standalone Recipes
Any / None	None	Custom, Imported
AWS	RKE, RKE2, K3S	v2, EKS, RKE, Split-roles RKE
Azure	RKE, RKE2, K3S, AKS	None
Google Cloud	RKE, RKE2, K3S, GKE	GKE
DigitalOcean	RKE, RKE2, K3S	None
VMware	RKE, RKE2, K3S	None