What is Rancher?
Rancher is an open source container management platform built for organizations that deploy containers in production. Rancher makes it easy to run Kubernetes everywhere, meet IT requirements, and empower DevOps teams.Rancher is built on Kubernetes and combines everything an organization needs to adopt and run containers in production. It provides a complete platform for testing, deploying, and managing applications at scale.
Key Capabilities
Multi-Cluster Management
Manage multiple Kubernetes clusters from a single control plane, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or at the edge.
Simplified Operations
Deploy and manage Kubernetes clusters with an intuitive UI and powerful CLI tools for DevOps workflows.
Enterprise Security
Built-in authentication, authorization, and audit logging to meet enterprise IT requirements.
Application Catalog
Deploy applications using Helm charts and leverage GitOps with Fleet for continuous delivery.
Why Choose Rancher?
Run Kubernetes Everywhere
Rancher supports multiple Kubernetes distributions and cloud providers:- RKE2 and K3s - Rancher’s lightweight Kubernetes distributions
- Hosted Kubernetes - AKS, EKS, GKE
- Import Existing Clusters - Bring your own Kubernetes clusters
Unified Management Experience
Manage all your Kubernetes clusters from a single interface:- Centralized authentication and RBAC
- Consistent deployment workflows
- Cross-cluster monitoring and logging
- Simplified backup and disaster recovery
DevOps-Ready Platform
Rancher includes everything DevOps teams need:- GitOps Integration - Fleet for continuous delivery
- Monitoring Stack - Prometheus and Grafana integration
- Service Mesh - Istio support
- CI/CD Pipelines - Native pipeline engine
Use Cases
Multi-Cloud Kubernetes
Multi-Cloud Kubernetes
Deploy and manage Kubernetes clusters across AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-premises infrastructure from a single control plane.
Edge Computing
Edge Computing
Run lightweight K3s clusters at the edge with centralized management and GitOps-based deployments.
Enterprise Container Platform
Enterprise Container Platform
Provide development teams with self-service Kubernetes clusters while maintaining centralized governance and security.
Kubernetes Migration
Kubernetes Migration
Simplify migration to Kubernetes by importing existing clusters and standardizing management across your infrastructure.
Architecture Overview
Rancher consists of two main components:-
Rancher Server - The management control plane that provides:
- Web UI and API server
- Authentication and authorization
- Cluster provisioning and lifecycle management
- Monitoring and logging aggregation
-
Managed Clusters - Kubernetes clusters managed by Rancher:
- Cluster agents for communication with Rancher Server
- Workload deployments and applications
- Monitoring and logging agents
For detailed architecture information, see the Architecture Overview section.
Stable Release
Current Stable Version: v2.13.3Docker Image:
rancher/rancher:v2.13.3 or rancher/rancher:stableView the full release notes on GitHub.- Watch the announcements category in the Rancher forums
- Subscribe to the RSS feed:
https://forums.rancher.com/c/announcements.rss
Next Steps
Quick Start
Get Rancher running in minutes with a single Docker command
Installation Guide
Learn about production installation options and requirements
Architecture
Understand how Rancher components work together
API Reference
Explore the Rancher API for automation and integration
Community and Support
Forums
Join the community discussion
Slack
Chat with the team and community
GitHub
Report bugs and request features