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title: Rancher Launched Kubernetes
weight: 2200
---

If you don't want to use a hosted Kubernetes provider, you can have Rancher launch a Kubernetes cluster using any nodes you want. When Rancher deploys Kubernetes onto these nodes, it uses [Rancher Kubernetes Engine]({{< baseurl >}}/rke/v0.1.x/en/) (RKE), which is Rancher's own lightweight Kubernetes installer. It can launch Kubernetes on any computers, including:

- Bare-metal servers
- On-premise virtual machines
- Virtual machines hosted by an infrastructure provider

RKE launched clusters are separated into two categories:

- [Nodes Hosted by an Infrastructure Provider]({{< baseurl >}}/rancher/v2.x/en/cluster-provisioning/rke-clusters/node-pools/):

    Using Rancher, you can create pools of nodes based on a [node template]({{< baseurl >}}/rancher/v2.x/en/cluster-provisioning/rke-clusters/node-pools/#node-templates). This node template defines the parameters you want to use to launch nodes in your cloud providers. The available cloud providers to create a node template are decided based on active [node drivers]({{< baseurl >}}/rancher/v2.x/en/cluster-provisioning/rke-clusters/node-pools/#node-drivers). The benefit of using a node hosted by an infrastructure provider is that if a node loses connectivity with the cluster, Rancher will automatically create another node to join the cluster to ensure that the count of the node pool is as expected.

- [Custom Nodes]({{< baseurl >}}/rancher/v2.x/en/cluster-provisioning/rke-clusters/custom-nodes/):

    For use cases where you want to provision bare-metal servers, on-premise virtual machines, or bring virtual machines that already exist in a cloud provider. With this option, you will run a Rancher agent Docker container on the machine.

    >**Note:** If you want to reuse a node from a previous custom cluster, [clean the node]({{< baseurl >}}/rancher/v2.x/en/admin-settings/removing-rancher/rancher-cluster-nodes/) before using it in a cluster again. If you reuse a node that hasn't been cleaned, cluster provisioning may fail.
  
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### Requirements

If you use RKE to set up a cluster, your cluster nodes must meet our [Requirements]({{< baseurl >}}/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/requirements).
