Learn By Doing: Rancher

Rancher is a complete software stack for teams adopting containers. It addresses the operational and security challenges of managing multiple Kubernetes clusters while providing DevOps teams with integrated tools for running containerized workloads.

This hands-on course takes you from exploring the Rancher interface to deploying production-ready monitoring solutions. Through 9 practical labs, you'll gain real-world experience managing Kubernetes clusters with Rancher.

What You’ll Learn

• Deploy Rancher: Set up a Rancher server using Helm on Kubernetes
• Manage Clusters: Create and upgrade custom RKE2 clusters
• Organize Resources: Configure Projects, Namespaces, and Resource Quotas
• Protect Your Data: Implement backup strategies with etcd snapshots
• Deploy Applications: Create deployments, services, and scale workloads
• Ensure Reliability: Configure liveness and readiness probes
• Secure Access: Implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Monitor Systems: Set up Prometheus and Grafana for cluster monitoring

Target Audience

• DevOps Engineers
• System Administrators
• Platform Engineers
• SREs (Site Reliability Engineers)
• Cloud Engineers managing Kubernetes

Prerequisites

• Basic understanding of containers and Docker
• Familiarity with Kubernetes concepts (pods, deployments, services)
• Command-line experience

Key Skills Gained

Upon completion, you will be able to:

1. Deploy and configure Rancher servers in production environments
2. Create and manage custom Kubernetes clusters
3. Organize multi-tenant environments with Projects and Namespaces
4. Implement disaster recovery with snapshot-based backups
5. Deploy and scale containerized applications
6. Configure application health monitoring
7. Implement security best practices with RBAC
8. Set up comprehensive monitoring and alerting