Rancher 2.4 Takes Kubernetes to the Edge with Path to 1 Million Clusters

Rancher Labs, creators of a widely used Kubernetes management platform, announced the general availability of Rancher 2.4.  Kubernetes is the engine enabling common computing from data center and cloud to the edge.  To help companies capitalize, Rancher’s latest release delivers the scalability, performance, and security required to enable enterprises to run Kubernetes everywhere.

With Rancher 2.4, Rancher Labs is delivering the capabilities required to support Kubernetes at edge scale. Key enhancements include:

• Path to 1 Million Clusters – For general availability, the product now supports 2,000 clusters and 100,000 nodes.  Additionally, the Rancher 2.4 architecture has been enhanced to provide a path to supporting 1 million clusters in an upcoming release.
• Limited Connectivity Maintenance with K3s – ideal for cluster management, upgrades and patches where clusters may not have fixed or stable network connection, Rancher 2.4 can kick off an upgrade remotely, but the process is managed on local K3s clusters, allowing users to manage upgrades and patches locally and then sync with the management server once connectivity is restored.
• Zero Downtime Maintenance for RKE – As organizations increasingly run production and business-critical applications, they need a non-disruptive way to maintain their Kubernetes infrastructure.  Rancher 2.4 enables zero downtime maintenance, allowing organizations to upgrade Kubernetes clusters and nodes without application interruption.  Additionally, users can select and configure their upgrade strategy for add-ons so that DNS and Ingress do not experience service disruption.
• Enhanced Security with CIS Benchmark Scanning – Cluster security is paramount to a successful Kubernetes strategy. To help address this issue, Rancher 2.4 introduces CIS Scan, which allows users to run ad-hoc security scans of their RKE clusters against 100+ CIS benchmarks published by the Centre for Internet Security and considered the de facto definition of a secure Kubernetes cluster.  Users can create custom test configurations and generate reports illustrating pass/fail information from which they can take corrective action to ensure their clusters meet all security requirements.

Hosted Rancher

Many organizations may not have, or prefer not to deal with, the infrastructure, compute, and human resources required to deploy and manage a Rancher Server on-premises.  In response to this demand, Rancher 2.4 is now available in a Hosted Rancher deployment, whereby each customer gets a dedicated AWS instance of a Rancher Server management control plan.  The offering is a full-featured Rancher server, delivers 99.9 percent SLA, and provides stress-free upgrades, security patches and backups. Downstream clusters (e.g. GKE, AKS) are not included in the SLA and continue to be operated by the respective distribution provider.