RKE2, Helm, Rancher, and NFS

1.1.1 My install uses 1 Master node and 1 Work node. Tenatively named them master02u and worker02u. Both have the same specs, 4 core 16gb ram.

1.1.2 Installed Alma 8

1.4.1 On the Master Node

1. Do the Actual rke2 Install
   

   curl -sfL https://get.rke2.io | sh - 
   systemctl enable rke2-server.service 
   systemctl start rke2-server.service  
   

2. This one will take a while. You can view messages by running in another window/tmux pane
   

   journalctl -u rke2-server.service -f
   

3. Then edit the bashrc to be able to use kubectl. We are also adding the path for helm tools which will help later.
   

   vim ~/.bashrc
   

   export PATH=/usr/local/bin/:/var/lib/rancher/rke2/bin/:$PATH
   export KUBECONFIG=/etc/rancher/rke2/rke2.yaml
   

   source ~/.bashrc
   

4. Stop your firewall (this needs to be adjusted to just allowed instead)
   

   systemctl stop firewalld
   systemctl disable firewalld
   

5. Make note of your installation token, this will be used on the worker node
   

   cat /var/lib/rancher/rke2/server/node-token
   

1.4.2 On the Worker Node

1. Follow the same steps for setting up rke2, but dont start yet
   

   curl -sfL https://get.rke2.io | INSTALL_RKE2_TYPE="agent" sh -
   systemctl enable rke2-agent.service 
   

2. Add the config file to connect to the master node
   

   mkdir -p /etc/rancher/rke2/
   vim /etc/rancher/rke2/config.yaml
   

   server: https://<server_ip>:9345
   token: <token from server node>
   

3. Start the service
   

   systemctl start rke2-agent.service
   

4. If this takes more than a few seconds, watch from another terminal
   

   journalctl -u rke2-agent.service -f
   

1.4.3 Back onto the Master Node

1. Install Helm
   

   curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3 | bash
   

2. Add the Cert Manager for Rancher
   

   kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.11.0/cert-manager.crds.yaml
   helm repo add jetstack https://charts.jetstack.io
   helm repo update
   helm install cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager --namespace cert-manager --create-namespace --version v1.11.0 --set installCRDs=true --timeout 10m0s
   

3. Finally install Rancher
   

   export INGRESS_NAME=rancher02u.local
   helm repo add rancher-stable https://releases.rancher.com/server-charts/stable
   kubectl create namespace cattle-system
   helm repo update
   helm install rancher rancher-stable/rancher --namespace cattle-system --set hostname=$INGRESS_NAME --set bootstrapPassword=admin --set global.cattle.psp.enabled=false
   

1.4.4 On your computer

1. Add $INGRESS_NAME to your /etc/hosts (pointing to the master node ip)
   
2. Open a browser and navigate to https://$ingress_name
   
3. Bootstrap password was set in the final helm install command, password is admin
   

1.5.1 Setup a new VM

1.5.2 On storage01u

1. Initial Setup
   

   hostnamectl set-hostname storage01u
   systemctl stop firewalld
   systemctl disable firewalld
   

2. Install Package
   

   dnf install nfs-utils
   

3. Create the shared directory
   

   mkdir /mnt/rancherdata
   chown nobody:nobody /mnt/rancherdata
   chmod 777 /mnt/rancherdata
   

4. Define the NFS Clients in /etc/exports
   

   vim /etc/exports
   

   /mnt/rancherdata 192.168.1.0/24 (rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
   

5. Export and Restart the service
   

   exportfs -a
   systemctl restart nfs-server
   systemctl enable nfs-server
   

1.5.3 On worker02u (and every worker node)

1. Install nfs-utils
   

   dnf install nfs-utils
   

2. Make the mounting directory
   

   mkdir /var/rancherdata
   

3. Add the entry to the fizzytab
   

   vim /etc/fstab
   

   192.168.1.199:/mnt/rancherdata /var/rancherdata nfs defaults 0 0
   

4. Mount the folder
   

   mount -a
   

1.5.4 On master02u

1. Add the helm repo
   

   helm repo add nfs-subdir-external-provisioner https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/nfs-subdir-external-provisioner/
   helm repo update
   

2. Deploy the container
   

   helm install nfs-subdir-external-provisioner nfs-subdir-external-provisioner/nfs-subdir-external-provisioner --set nfs.server=192.168.1.199 --set nfs.path=/mnt/rancherdata
   

2.1.1 After you create a Deployment, you need to add the persistent storage. There is like a way to do this during deployment.

1. Workloads > Deploymenmts
   

2.1.2 NFS

1. This is automatically created from the container.
   

4.1.1 install tmux

4.1.2 change hostname