Rancher v2.6.0

For this supported product version, open source software and integrations covered by our terms and conditions⁰ are those validated and certified per support matrix⁰⁰ below.

Installing Rancher v2.6.0 on RKE

RKE CLI & K8S for Local Cluster

Rancher Version	Recommended CLI Version	Kubernetes Versions
v2.6.0	v1.3.0	v1.21.x (Default) v1.20.10 v1.19.14 v1.18.20

OS & Docker

Type	Version	Validated/certified on1
CentOS	7.7, 7.8, 7.9	Docker 18.06.3, 18.09.x, 19.03.x, 20.10.x
	8.3, 8.4	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x
Rocky Linux	8.4	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x
Oracle Linux	7.7, 7.9	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x
	8.2, 8.3	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x
RHEL	7.7, 7.8, 7.9	RHEL Docker 1.13.x Docker 18.06.3, 18.09.x, 19.03.x, 20.10.x
	8.2, 8.3, 8.4	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x
SLES	12 SP5, 15 SP1, 15 SP2, 15 SP3	Docker 19.03.x, Docker 20.10.x
Ubuntu	18.04, 20.04	Docker 18.06.3, 18.09.x, 19.03.x, 20.10.x

Installing Rancher v2.6.0 on K3S

Local Cluster

K3S Version	Validated/certified on2,3,4,5
v1.21.4+k3s1	Aurora (MySQL 5.7) 2.09.0 MySQL 5.7 PostgreSQL 11.5, 12.5, 13.1 MariaDB 10.4.8 External Etcd 3.4.13 Embedded Etcd v3.4.13-k3s1 CRI: embedded Containerd v1.4.9-k3s1 CNI: embedded Flannel v0.14.0
v1.20.10+k3s1	Aurora (MySQL 5.7) 2.09.0 MySQL 5.7 PostgreSQL 11.5, 12.5, 13.1 MariaDB 10.4.8 External Etcd 3.4.15 Embedded Etcd v3.4.13-k3s3 CRI: embedded Containerd v1.4.9-k3s1 CNI: embedded Flannel v0.12.0-k3s.2
v1.19.14+k3s1	Aurora (MySQL 5.7) 2.09.0 MySQL 5.7 PostgreSQL 11.5, 12.5, 13.1 MariaDB 10.4.8 External Etcd 3.4.13 Embedded Etcd v3.4.13-k3s3 CRI: embedded Containerd v1.4.9-k3s1 CNI: embedded Flannel v0.12.0-k3s.1
v1.18.20+k3s1 (supported on Ubuntu and CentOS/RHEL 7.x only)	Aurora (MySQL 5.7) 2.09.0 MySQL 5.7 PostgreSQL 11.5 MariaDB 10.3.20 External Etcd 3.3.15 CRI: embedded Containerd v1.3.10-k3s1 CNI: embedded Flannel v0.11.0-k3s.2

OS

Type	Version	Validated/certified on1
CentOS	7.8, 7.9, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4	x86_64 architecture
Rocky Linux	8.4	x86_64 architecture
RHEL	7.8, 7.9, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4	x86_64 architecture
SLES	15 SP1, 15 SP2, 15 SP3	x86_64 architecture
OpenSUSE LEAP	15 SP3	x86_64 architecture
Ubuntu	18.04, 20.04	x86_64 architecture

Installing Rancher v2.6.0 on RKE2

Local Cluster

RKE2 Version	Validated/certified on2,3,4,5
v1.21.4+rke2r2 (Cilium CNI does not support CentOS / RHEL 7.x environments)	CRI: Containerd v1.4.8-k3s1 CNI: Canal (Flannel v0.13.0-rancher1, Calico: v3.13.3) CNI: Calico v3.19.2 CNI: Cilium v1.9.8
v1.20.10+rke2r1 (Cilium CNI does not support CentOS / RHEL 7.x environments)	CRI: Containerd v1.4.8-k3s1 CNI: Canal (Flannel v0.13.0-rancher1, Calico: v3.13.3) CNI: Calico v3.19.1 CNI: Cilium v1.9.8
v1.19.14+rke2r1	CRI: Containerd v1.4.8-k3s1 CNI: Canal (Flannel v0.13.0-rancher1, Calico: v3.13.3)

OS

Type	Version	Validated/certified on1
CentOS	7.8, 7.9, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4	x86_64 architecture
Rocky Linux	8.4	x86_64 architecture
RHEL	7.8, 7.9, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4	x86_64 architecture
SLES	15 SP1, 15 SP2, 15 SP3	x86_64 architecture
OpenSUSE LEAP	15 SP3	x86_64 architecture
Ubuntu	18.04, 20.04	x86_64 architecture

Installing Rancher v2.6.0 on Hosted Kubernetes

Service	Provider	Highest Version Validated/certified on
AKS	Microsoft Azure	v1.20.7
EKS	Amazon	v1.20.x
GKE	Google	v1.20.8-gke.900

Downstream Clusters in Rancher v2.6.0

Rancher RKE Downstream Clusters - Linux Worker Nodes

Note: Rancher RKE Downstream clusters can be either provisioned by node drivers or custom/existing nodes, or registered into Rancher.

OS & Docker

Type	Version	Validated/certified on1
CentOS	7.7, 7.8, 7.9	Docker 18.06.3, 18.09.x, 19.03.x, 20.10.x
	8.2, 8.3	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x
Rocky Linux	8.4	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x (does not work with node driver as the Rancher Docker install script doesn’t support Rocky Linux yet)
Oracle Linux	7.7, 7.9	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x
	8.2, 8.3, 8.4	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x
RHEL	7.7, 7.8, 7.9	RHEL Docker 1.13.x Docker 18.06.3, 18.09.x, 19.03.x, 20.10.x
	8.2, 8.3	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x
SLES	12 SP5, 15 SP1, 15 SP2, 15 SP3	Docker 19.03.x, 20.10.x
Ubuntu	18.04, 20.04	Docker 18.06.3, 18.09.x, 19.03.x, 20.10.x

Supported K8S Versions

Upstream K8S Version	Validated/certified on2,3,4,5
v1.21.4	etcd: v3.4.16 flannel: v0.14.0 canal: v3.19.2 nginx-ingress-controller: 0.48.1-rancher1
v1.20.10	etcd: v3.4.15 flannel: v0.13.0 canal: v3.17.2 nginx-ingress-controller: 0.48.1-rancher1
v1.19.14	etcd: v3.4.15 flannel: v0.13.0 canal: v3.16.5 nginx-ingress-controller: 0.48.1-rancher1
v1.18.20	etcd: v3.4.15 flannel: v0.12.0 canal: v3.13.4 nginx-ingress-controller: 0.35.0-rancher2

Node Drivers

Type	Version	SLA limited to
AWS	N/A	Built-in, Active6
Azure	N/A	Built-in, Active6
Digital Ocean	N/A	Built-in, Active6
Linode	N/A	Built-in, Active6
VMware	vSphere 6.5, 6.7, 7.0update 2a	Built-in, Active6

Rancher RKE Downstream Clusters - Windows Worker Nodes

Note: Windows clusters use a mix of Linux and Windows hosts as cluster nodes. Windows nodes can only be used for deploying workloads, while Linux nodes are required for cluster management.

Supported Windows Server, Docker, K8S Versions

Windows Server	Docker Version	Upstream K8S Version	Windows EOM
Windows Server 2019 LTSC	Docker 19.03.x EE	v1.21.x v1.20.x v1.19.8 v1.18.16	1/19/2024
2004 SAC	Docker 19.03.x EE	v.1.21.x v1.20.x v1.19.8 v1.18.16	12/14/2021
20H2 SAC	Docker 19.03.x EE	v.1.21.x	5/10/2022

Refer these external links for more info related to Windows and Kubernetes:
Windows OS version support in Kubernetes
Windows Server release information

Rancher K3S Downstream Clusters

Note: Rancher k3s clusters can only be registered into Rancher. The versions below are supported for importing and upgrading.

OS

Type	Version	Validated/certified on1
CentOS	7.8, 7.9, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4	x86_64 architecture
Rocky Linux	8.4	x86_64 architecture
RHEL	7.8, 7.9, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4	x86_64 architecture
SLES	15 SP1, 15 SP2, 15 SP3	x86_64 architecture
OpenSUSE LEAP	15 SP3	x86_64 architecture
Ubuntu	18.04, 20.04	x86_64 architecture

Supported K3S Versions

K3S Version	Validated/certified on2,3,4,5
v1.21.4+k3s1	Aurora (MySQL 5.7) 2.09.0 MySQL 5.7 PostgreSQL 11.5, 12.5, 13.1 MariaDB 10.4.8 External Etcd 3.4.13 Embedded Etcd v3.4.13-k3s1 CRI: embedded Containerd v1.4.9-k3s1 CNI: embedded Flannel v0.14.0
v1.20.10+k3s1	Aurora (MySQL 5.7) 2.09.0 MySQL 5.7 PostgreSQL 11.5, 12.5, 13.1 MariaDB 10.4.8 External Etcd 3.4.15 Embedded Etcd v3.4.13-k3s3 CRI: embedded Containerd v1.4.9-k3s1 CNI: embedded Flannel v0.12.0-k3s.2
v1.19.14+k3s1	Aurora (MySQL 5.7) 2.09.0 MySQL 5.7 PostgreSQL 11.5, 12.5, 13.1 MariaDB 10.4.8 External Etcd 3.4.13 Embedded Etcd v3.4.13-k3s3 CRI: embedded Containerd v1.4.9-k3s1 CNI: embedded Flannel v0.12.0-k3s.1
v1.18.20+k3s1 (supported on Ubuntu and CentOS/RHEL 7.x only)	Aurora (MySQL 5.7) 2.09.0 MySQL 5.7 PostgreSQL 11.5 MariaDB 10.3.20 External Etcd 3.3.15 CRI: embedded Containerd v1.3.10-k3s1 CNI: embedded Flannel v0.11.0-k3s.2

Rancher RKE2 Downstream Clusters

Note: Rancher RKE2, also known as RKE Government, clusters can only be registered into Rancher as an imported cluster.

OS

Type	Version	Validated/certified on1
CentOS	7.8, 7.9, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4	x86_64 architecture
Rocky Linux	8.4	x86_64 architecture
RHEL	7.8, 7.9, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4	x86_64 architecture
SLES	15 SP1, 15 SP2, 15 SP3	x86_64 architecture
OpenSUSE LEAP	15 SP3	x86_64 architecture
Ubuntu	18.04, 20.04	x86_64 architecture

Supported RKE2 Versions

RKE2 Version	Validated/certified on2,3,4,5
v1.21.4+rke2r2 (Cilium CNI does not support CentOS / RHEL 7.x environments)	Etcd: v3.4.13-k3s1 Containerd: v1.4.8-k3s1 Runc: v1.0.0 Metrics-server: v0.3.6 CoreDNS: v1.8.3 Ingress-Nginx: v3.34.001 Helm-controller: v0.10.6 CNI Plugins: v0.8.7 CNI: Canal (Flannel: v0.13.0-rancher1, Calico: v3.13.3) CNI: Calico v3.19.2 CNI: Cilium v1.9.8
v1.20.10+rke2r1	Etcd: v3.4.13-k3s1 Containerd: v1.4.8-k3s1 Runc: v1.0.0-rc95 Metrics-server: v0.3.6 CoreDNS: v1.6.9 Ingress-Nginx: v1.36.3 Helm-controller: v0.9.3 CNI Plugins: v0.8.7 CNI: Canal (Flannel: v0.13.0-rancher1, Calico: v3.13.3) CNI: Calico v3.19.1 CNI: Cilium v1.9.8
v1.19.14+rke2r1	Etcd: v3.4.13-k3s1 Containerd: v1.4.8-k3s1 Runc: v1.0.0-rc95 Metrics-server: v0.3.6 CoreDNS: v1.6.9 Ingress-Nginx: v1.36.3 Helm-controller: v0.8.4 CNI Plugins: v0.8.7 CNI: Canal (Flannel: v0.13.0-rancher1, Calico: v3.13.3)

Hosted Kubernetes Downstream Clusters

Note: Hosted Kubernetes clusters can be either provisioned by Rancher or registered into Rancher.

Supported K8S Versions

Service	Provider	Highest Version Validated/certified on	Notes
AKS	Microsoft Azure	v1.21.2
EKS	Amazon	v1.21.2-eks-0389ca3	Amazon Linux 2 is certified on Managed Node Groups.
GKE	Google	v1.20.9-gke.2100

Other Registered Kubernetes Downstream Clusters

Note: Any Upstream Kubernetes conformant cluster can be registered.

Supported K8S Versions

Type	Highest version validated/certified on2,3,4,5	Notes
Any	By minor version of upstream K8S: v1.21.x v1.20.10 v1.19.14 v1.18.20
EKS	v1.20.x

Cluster Explorer

Rancher Apps

Feature	App Name	App version2 3 4 5
Alerting and Monitoring	rancher-monitoring	v16.6.0
Istio	rancher-istio	v1.10.4
Logging	rancher-logging	v3.12.0
CIS	rancher-cis-benchmark	v2.0.0
Rancher Backup	rancher-backup	v2.0.0

Rancher Longhorn

Version	Validated/certified on2 3 4 5
v1.2.0	Default settings of individual components

Rancher Continuous Delivery

Version	Validated/certified on2 3 4 5
v0.3.6	Default settings of individual components

Cluster Manager Tools (Legacy)

Tools

Type	Version	Highest Kubernetes Version	Validated/certified on2 3 4 5
Monitoring/Alerts/Notifiers	v0.1.5 and v0.2.1	v1.20.x	v0.1.5 prometheus: v2.18.2 prometheus-operator: v0.38.1 prometheus-config-reloader: v0.38.1 prometheus-auth: v0.2.1 node-exporter: v1.0.1 kube-state-metrics: v1.9.7 configmap-reload: v0.3.0 grafana: v7.1.5 v0.2.2 prometheus: v2.18.2 prometheus-operator: v0.39.0 prometheus-config-reloader: v0.39.0 prometheus-auth: v0.2.1 node-exporter: v1.0.1 kube-state-metrics: v1.9.7 configmap-reload: v0.3.0 grafana: v7.1.5
Istio Service Mesh	v1.5.9	v1.20.10	istio-citadel: v1.5.9 istio-galley: v1.5.9 istio-proxyv2: v1.5.9 istio-pilot: v1.5.9 istio-mixer: v1.5.9 istio-sidecar_injector: v1.5.9 jaegertracing-all-in-one: v1.14 kiali-kiali: v1.17 istio-node-agent-k8s: v1.5.9 coredns-coredns: v1.6.9 prom-prometheus: v2.18.2 jetstack-cert-manager-controller: v0.8.1
Logging/Project Logging	v0.3.0	v1.20.x	fluentd:v0.1.29 log-aggregator:v0.1.8 configmap-reload:v0.3.0-rancher4
Pipelines	v1.5.9	v1.20.10	pipeline-jenkins-server:v0.1.4 pipeline-tools:v0.1.16 mirrored-jenkins-jnlp-slave:4.7-1
CIS	v1.5.9	v1.20.10	security-scan:v0.1.14

Catalag

Type	Tag	SLA applies
Library	None	To the extent of being able to launch app with default configurations7
	Partner	To the extent of being able to launch app with default configurations7 8
	Experimental	N/A

^† All “latest” tagged releases are intended for the Rancher community users to test-drive a new release and provide feedback. These “latest” tagged releases whilst covered by Rancher SLA are not generally meant for production use cases. Kindly use only the “stable” tagged releases for your own production use cases.

⁰ For open source components not listed in the matrix above, support is limited to troubleshooting for root cause up to Rancher’s drivers and interfaces to those components. Root causes that are identified to be beyond this limit will need to be pursued by Company with the maintainers and providers of commercial support for those components.

⁰⁰ for ensuring best support and clarity on supportability, Company is recommended to publish to Rancher a list of components that are critical to its deployment but not not explicitly called out in the support matrix

¹ certified on default OS kernel. Issues resulting from third party tools (typically, for reasons such as security) interfering with Docker or other necessary system calls are deemed resolved should disabling such tools restore functionality

² certified configurations are based on default settings of individual components. Where Company has deviated from certified configurations, Rancher Labs reserves the right to recommend the Company to revert to a certified configuration to resolve the reported issue.

³ whilst running kubernetes clusters in uncertified configurations may be possible, it is not recommended

⁴ upgrade of any individual component to a different version is likely to result in system downtime

⁵ changes to default settings of individual components may be necessary on exceptional basis, for reasons such as fine tuning for performance and scale. Engagement with Rancher Consulting or a partner may be recommended.

⁶ SLA on node drivers is limited to those that are built-in and active by default when Rancher is installed

⁷ SLA does not apply to issues within an application and its lifecycle management

⁸ issues may be referred to the partner as appropriate

^‡ SLA is limited to running workload clusters on hosted kubernetes provider and does not apply to running the Rancher control plane on one of the listed hosted kubernetes providers for all Rancher versions older than Rancher v2.5.x. In Rancher v2.5.x, SLA applies to running Rancher control plane on the listed kubernetes distributions and hosted providers.