Rancher Manager (Experimental)
rancher-vcluster is an experimental add-on. It is not included in the Harvester ISO, but you can download it from the experimental-addons repository. For more information about experimental features, see Feature Labels.
The rancher-vcluster add-on allows you to run Rancher as a workload on the underlying Harvester cluster and is implemented using vCluster.
The add-on runs a nested K3s cluster in the rancher-vcluster namespace and deploys Rancher to this cluster.
During the installation, the ingress for Rancher is synced to the Harvester cluster, allowing end users to access Rancher.
Installing the Add-on
If you are using the Harvester kubeconfig file, you can install the add-on by running the following command:
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harvester/experimental-addons/main/rancher-vcluster/rancher-vcluster.yaml
Configuring the Add-on
After installation, configure the add-on using the Harvester UI.
Go to Advanced > Add-ons.
Locate the rancher-vcluster add-on, and then select ⋮ > Edit Config.
In the Hostname field, enter a valid DNS record pointing to the Harvester VIP. This is essential as the vcluster ingress is synced to the parent Harvester cluster. A valid hostname is used to filter ingress traffic to the vcluster workload.
In the Bootstrap Password field, enter the bootstrap password for the new Rancher deployed on the vcluster.
Once the add-on is deployed, Rancher can take a few minutes to become available.
You can then access Rancher via the hostname DNS record that you provided.
See Rancher Integration for more information.
rancher-vcluster is deployed on a vcluster Statefulset that uses a Longhorn PVC named data-rancher-vcluster-0.
When you disable the add-on, the PVC remains in the rancher-vcluster namespace. If you enable the add-on again, the PVC is reused and Rancher's previous state is restored.
If you want to wipe the data, ensure that the PVC is deleted.