It is a classic Helm repository, for more information about Helm: https:\/\/helm.sh\/ The file Chart.yaml contains the information about the chart. You can define multiple information about your chart like the name, description, versions, etc. (https:\/\/helm.sh\/docs\/topics\/charts\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n Note that the following annotation is mandatory to make the RKE2 Cluster template visible in Rancher.<\/p>\n\n\n The directory <templates> contains templates of the Kubernetes resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those files are forked from the official example GitHub repository of Rancher. An easy solution to create your template depending on your needs, is to manually create the RKE2 cluster from Rancher, and download those YAML resources files. In this way, you will be sure which parameters are used and what values to set. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The resources for the cluster and machines are available in the UI. local > More Resources > Amazonec2Config <\/p>\n\n\n\n For the following part, fork the GitHub repository including the branch. That way you can modify the Chart files to experiment and fit your needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s start by fixing the VPC configuration of our nodepools. In the values.yaml<\/a> file, find the following parameters for both nodepools and configure it with your AWS configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n Do not hesitate to check the other parameters and modify them depending of your needs. As described in the official documentation<\/a>, to use RKE2 templates, we need to add the repositories into Rancher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Cluster Management > Advanced > Repositories > Create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Name: dbiservices-rke2 Once the repository is added, the RKE2 template will automatically be available when you create a new cluster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Click on the dbiservices-template-ec2, it will bring you to the form to configure some of the cluster parameters. In group General, I use an AWS Credentials created in Rancher, chose RKE2 version 1.26, and Canal as Container Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then you can directly configure the nodepool for controlplane and workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once complete, click on install. It will install the Helm chart into the Rancher cluster (local), in the namespace fleet-default. In case you need to remove the cluster, delete the Apps instead of the cluster. It ensures that all resources created by the Helm chart are deleted. For example, the ManagedChart is not deleted if you delete only the cluster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, the cluster is provisioned with the predefined parameters in values.yaml, in addition to the customized parameters from the question.yaml form. The usage of templates is not complex. The advantage of templates is to allow users who have the rights, to create a cluster with the correct, standardized configuration, that adheres to the internal IT guidelines of your company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A few modifications are made in the branch rke2-ec2 <\/strong>of the forked repository, <\/p>\n\n\n\n For cluster.yaml, I prefixed the nodepool name with the cluster name. The purpose is to avoid errors if a nodepool already exists with the same name.<\/p>\n\n\n For nodeconfig-aws.yaml, I added the function quote for the parameters retries, rootSize, and spotPrice to force type string.<\/p>\n\n\n To go further, check the next blog article about assigning members to the cluster from the template. In Rancher, you can preconfigure your clusters and node configuration. Then your team can start provisioning clusters, with consistency and no misconfiguration. For RKE, templates are easily comprehensible and seamlessly integrated into the Rancher UI, making it user-friendly. For RKE2, we need to make use of the RKE2 cluster template. Get started with RKE2 cluster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1320,1522],"tags":[2667,2634,2276,309],"type_dbi":[3017,2943,3243,3244],"class_list":["post-30957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devops","category-kubernetes","tag-devops-2","tag-kubernetes-2","tag-rancher","tag-suse","type-devops","type-kubernetes","type-rancher","type-suse"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/a>Let’s look into some files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n.\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 charts \n\u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 Chart.yaml # A YAML file containing information about the chart\n\u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 README.md\n\u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 questions.yaml\n\u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 templates\n\u2502 \u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 _helpers.tpl\n\u2502 \u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 cluster.yaml\n\u2502 \u2502 \u251c\u2500\u2500 managedcharts.yaml\n\u2502 \u2502 \u2514\u2500\u2500 nodeconfig-aws.yaml\n\u2502 \u2514\u2500\u2500 values.yaml # The default configuration values for this chart\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 dbiservices-template-ec2-0.0.1.tgz\n\u2514\u2500\u2500 index.yaml\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
\napiVersion: v1\nname: dbiservices-template-ec2\ndescription: Cluster template for amazon ec2 rke2 \nversion: 0.0.1\nannotations:\n catalog.cattle.io\/type: cluster-template\n catalog.cattle.io\/namespace: fleet-default\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
\ncatalog.cattle.io\/type: cluster-template\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
\n
It contains the cluster configuration (kubernetes configuration, machine pools, update strategy, etc.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Feel free to create or edit those files to meet your needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cluster Management > Cluster<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/image-27-1024x327.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/image-29-1024x315.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nInstallation and deployment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n# AWS region\nregion: eu-central-1\n# AWS zone for instance (i.e. a,b,c,d,e)\nzone: a\n# AWS VPC id\nvpcId: "vpc-xxxxxxxxxxxx"\n# AWS VPC subnet id\nsubnetId: "subnet-xxxxxxxxxxxx"\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Once done, save the file, and run the following command to package the chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\nhelm package charts\nhelm repo index .\n\ngit add .\ngit commit -m 'update values.yaml and repackage'\ngit push\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
Target: Git repository containing Helm chart or cluster template definitions
Git Repo URL: https:\/\/github.com\/kkedbi\/cluster-template-examples
<\/a>Git Branch: rke2-ec2<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/image-31-1024x267.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/image-32-1024x447.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/image-34-1024x286.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
This form is described as YAML code in Charts\/questions.yaml<\/a>. It is entirely customizable to fit your needs. Through the form, we can specify the Kubernetes version, CNI, VPC ID, Region, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/image-36-1024x405.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/image-37-1024x354.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/image-38-1024x330.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/image-39-1024x185.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/02\/image-40-1024x371.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nConclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In the example above, I allowed the user to choose the Kubernetes version, the CNI, the quantity from 1 to 3 for the node pool, and their instance type. You can predefined and fix those values directly in the values.yaml or templates files.
A few fixed parameters were related to the AWS network (VPC, subnet, region, etc.). Therefore the user who uses the template doesn’t need any visibility and information about AWS configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAdditional information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n name: {{ $.Values.cluster.name }}-{{ $nodepool.name }}\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\nspotPrice: {{ quote $nodepool.spotPrice }}\nretries: {{ quote $nodepool.retries }}\nrootSize: {{ quote $nodepool.rootSize }}\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/rancher-rke2-templates-assign-members-to-clusters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nSources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
https:\/\/ranchermanager.docs.rancher.com\/how-to-guides\/new-user-guides\/manage-clusters\/manage-cluster-templates<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/github.com\/rancher\/cluster-template-examples\/tree\/main<\/a>,.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nBlogs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/rancher-autoscaler-enable-rke2-node-autoscaling\/<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/reestablish-administrator-role-access-to-rancher-users\/<\/a>
Rancher RKE2 templates – Assign members to clusters
https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/rancher-rke2-templates-assign-members-to-clusters<\/a>
<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"