Rancher 2.5 to Rancher 2.6 Upgrade¶
NERSC upgraded from Rancher 2.5 to 2.6 in Spring 2023, which includes a major update to the graphical user interface. The new UI is named "Cluster Explorer".
This page contains a summary of major changes to the UI, and also a list of known UI bugs.
Summary of changes between Rancher 2.5 and Rancher 2.6¶
| Feature | Rancher 2.5 | Rancher 2.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Overall navigation | Resources located in various menus | All resources are located under the left hand navigation bar |
| Overall navigation | Resources located in various menus | Resource options are located within the resource context |
| Shell & log window | Shell window was a full screen | Shell access & logs open multiple windows side-by-side |
| Namespaces | Could create namespace while creating workload | Must create namespace before workload |
| Workload creation | Can paste multiple key-value pairs as environment variables | Config Maps are recommended over environment variables. You can paste multiple key-value pairs as Config Maps. During workload creation, environment variables do not support the bulk paste of multiple key-value pairs. |
| Workload Creation | Security Context is at bottom of workload config page | Security context is found under Container-0 |
| Secrets | Secrets, Certs, Registry Credentials are in separate menus under the ‘Secrets’ menu | Secrets are located under Storage. The default type of secret is “Opaque” |
| Ingresses | Ingresses were located under Workload > Loadbalancers | Ingresses are located under Service Discovery |
| Loadbalancers | Loadbalancers were created from a workload | Loadbalancers are located under Service Discovery > Services |
| Volumes | Volumes were located under Workload > Volumes | Volumes are located under Storage > PersistentVolumeClaims |
New UI navigation¶
Here are a few highlights of the new UI:
- The new navigation menu on the left side contains all resources that are available to you. Here are the location of some important resource types.
- Namespaces are listed under the
Clustermenu. - Deployments are listed under the
Workloadsmenu - Ingresses and Loadbalancers are listed under the
Service Discoverymenu
- Namespaces are listed under the
- Notice the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner. This allows you to search for resources by their type, such as a Deployment or Pod.
- If you work with multiple namespaces, you can select which namespaces to view in the namespace dropdown above.
- We recommend that you stay away from the menu titled "More Resources" or the button titled "Cluster Tools". The items contained within tend to be confusing to most folks. In addition, you will not have permission to use some of the things and will get an error message if you try to activate them. Here be Dragons
Workload navigation menu¶
Similar to the left hand navigation menu, items in the workload navigation menus are organized by a hierarchy. In the example below, we can see that a Deployment contains the Pod, and the Pod contains the Container.
Shell access and logs¶
Opening a shell or log can be done from the dropdown menu next to a Pod. This will open an in-browser window as shown by the arrows below. A few things to notice:
- The shell and log windows will time out after a few minutes of inactivity. Notice the green word "Connected" in the bottom right corner. If it says "Disconnected" in red, your session has been disconnected or the container has stopped.
- The window bar across the top of the log or shell window has an "expansion icon" which allows you to minimize or expand the windows.
Containers are now launched without the --interactive and --tty flags¶
Note that containers are now launched without the --interactive and --tty flags. As a consequence, containers without a long running entrypoint will exit immediately and you will not be able to open an interactive shell. One notable example is the ubuntu series of images.
You can re-enable these features in the container configuration. Navigate to the container tab, scroll down to the Command section and select Yes for Stdin and check the box next to TTY as shown here:
Must create namespace before workload¶
Rancher 2.5 allowed you to create a namespace when creating a workload:
In Rancher 2.6, namespaces must be created before creating the workload. Namespaces are created from the top left menu, Cluster > Namespaces > Create Namespace, as shown here:
Note that Projects may only be created by NERSC staff.
Config Maps¶
In Rancher 2.6, the recommended practice for adding environment variables is to use Config Maps. A user can paste multiple key-values into Config Maps at once, and then use those Config Maps in a deployment. The Rancher 2.6 UI does not allow a user to bulk paste multiple key-value pairs into the Environment Variables section during workload creation.
Security context¶
In Rancher 2.5, the security context for the workloads was available at the far bottom of the page, after clicking Advanced Options:
In Rancher 2.6, the security context is located under the "Container" tab, as shown here:
Secrets¶
In Kubernetes, secrets are listed under the Storage menu because a secret is technically a storage object. The default type of secret is an Opaque secret-- this was true in Rancher 2.5 as well, but the UI simply called them "Secrets" and didn't use the word "Opaque".
Ingresses¶
Ingresses are now located under Service Discovery
Loadbalancers¶
Loadbalancers are now located under Service Discovery > Services
Volumes¶
Volumes have been renamed to use the Kubernetes term "Persistent Volume Claim" (PVC) and can be found under Storage > PersistentVolumeClaims
