diff --git a/content/_index.html b/content/_index.html index ccad7160a18..209d77f70cb 100644 --- a/content/_index.html +++ b/content/_index.html @@ -215,7 +215,7 @@
-

Lightweight Kubernetes. Easy to install, half the memory, all in a binary less than 50mb.

+

Lightweight Kubernetes. Easy to install, half the memory, all in a binary less than 100 MB.

diff --git a/content/k3s/latest/en/_index.md b/content/k3s/latest/en/_index.md index 952027f0c93..a02147dc599 100644 --- a/content/k3s/latest/en/_index.md +++ b/content/k3s/latest/en/_index.md @@ -1,29 +1,41 @@ --- -title: "K3s - 5 less than K8s" +title: "K3s - Lightweight Kubernetes" shortTitle: K3s name: "menu" --- -Lightweight Kubernetes. Easy to install, half the memory, all in a binary of less than 50mb. +Lightweight Kubernetes. Easy to install, half the memory, all in a binary of less than 100 MB. Great for: * Edge * IoT * CI +* Development * ARM +* Embedding K8s * Situations where a PhD in K8s clusterology is infeasible # What is K3s? K3s is a fully compliant Kubernetes distribution with the following enhancements: -* An embedded SQLite database has replaced etcd as the default datastore. External datastores such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, and etcd are also supported. +* Packaged as a single binary. +* Lightweight storage backend based on sqlite3 as the default storage mechanism. etcd3, MySQL, Postgres also still available. +* Wrapped in simple launcher that handles a lot of the complexity of TLS and options. +* Secure by default with reasonable defaults for lightweight environments. * Simple but powerful "batteries-included" features have been added, such as: a local storage provider, a service load balancer, a Helm controller, and the Traefik ingress controller. * Operation of all Kubernetes control plane components is encapsulated in a single binary and process. This allows K3s to automate and manage complex cluster operations like distributing certificates. -* In-tree cloud providers and storage plugins have been removed. * External dependencies have been minimized (just a modern kernel and cgroup mounts needed). K3s packages required dependencies, including: * containerd * Flannel * CoreDNS + * CNI * Host utilities (iptables, socat, etc) + * Ingress controller (traefik) + * Embedded service loadbalancer + * Embedded network policy controller + +# What's with the name? + +We wanted an installation of Kubernetes that was half the size in terms of memory footprint. Kubernetes is a 10-letter word stylized as K8s. So something half as big as Kubernetes would be a 5-letter word stylized as K3s. There is no long form of K3s and no official pronunciation. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/_index.md b/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/_index.md index eb463283c70..21044984828 100644 --- a/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/_index.md +++ b/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/_index.md @@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ In this section, - **The Rancher server** manages and provisions Kubernetes clusters. You can interact with downstream Kubernetes clusters through the Rancher server's user interface. - **RKE (Rancher Kubernetes Engine)** is a certified Kubernetes distribution and CLI/library which creates and manages a Kubernetes cluster. -- **K3s (5 less than K8s)** is also a fully compliant Kubernetes distribution. It is newer than RKE, easier to use, and more lightweight, with a binary size of less than 50 MB. As of Rancher v2.4, Rancher can be installed on a K3s cluster. +- **K3s (Lightweight Kubernetes)** is also a fully compliant Kubernetes distribution. It is newer than RKE, easier to use, and more lightweight, with a binary size of less than 100 MB. As of Rancher v2.4, Rancher can be installed on a K3s cluster. ### Overview of Installation Options diff --git a/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/k8s-install/kubernetes-rke/_index.md b/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/k8s-install/kubernetes-rke/_index.md index 8f62c8450ec..4df06d13cbd 100644 --- a/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/k8s-install/kubernetes-rke/_index.md +++ b/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/k8s-install/kubernetes-rke/_index.md @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ This section describes how to install a Kubernetes cluster according to our [bes For Rancher prior to v2.4, Rancher should be installed on an RKE Kubernetes cluster. RKE is a CNCF-certified Kubernetes distribution that runs entirely within Docker containers. -As of Rancher v2.4, the Rancher management server can be installed on either an RKE cluster or a K3s Kubernetes cluster. K3s is also a fully certified Kubernetes distribution released by Rancher, but is newer than RKE. We recommend installing Rancher on K3s because K3s is easier to use, and more lightweight, with a binary size of less than 50 MB. Note: After Rancher is installed on an RKE cluster, there is no migration path to a K3s setup at this time. +As of Rancher v2.4, the Rancher management server can be installed on either an RKE cluster or a K3s Kubernetes cluster. K3s is also a fully certified Kubernetes distribution released by Rancher, but is newer than RKE. We recommend installing Rancher on K3s because K3s is easier to use, and more lightweight, with a binary size of less than 100 MB. Note: After Rancher is installed on an RKE cluster, there is no migration path to a K3s setup at this time. The Rancher management server can only be run on Kubernetes cluster in an infrastructure provider where Kubernetes is installed using RKE or K3s. Use of Rancher on hosted Kubernetes providers, such as EKS, is not supported. diff --git a/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/other-installation-methods/air-gap/launch-kubernetes/_index.md b/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/other-installation-methods/air-gap/launch-kubernetes/_index.md index cf96f997ea1..ad3e85da78d 100644 --- a/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/other-installation-methods/air-gap/launch-kubernetes/_index.md +++ b/content/rancher/v2.x/en/installation/other-installation-methods/air-gap/launch-kubernetes/_index.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ This section describes how to install a Kubernetes cluster according to our [bes For Rancher prior to v2.4, Rancher should be installed on an [RKE]({{}}/rke/latest/en/) (Rancher Kubernetes Engine) Kubernetes cluster. RKE is a CNCF-certified Kubernetes distribution that runs entirely within Docker containers. -As of Rancher v2.4, the Rancher management server can be installed on either an RKE cluster or a K3s Kubernetes cluster. K3s is also a fully certified Kubernetes distribution released by Rancher, but is newer than RKE. We recommend installing Rancher on K3s because K3s is easier to use, and more lightweight, with a binary size of less than 50 MB. Note: After Rancher is installed on an RKE cluster, there is no migration path to a K3s setup at this time. +As of Rancher v2.4, the Rancher management server can be installed on either an RKE cluster or a K3s Kubernetes cluster. K3s is also a fully certified Kubernetes distribution released by Rancher, but is newer than RKE. We recommend installing Rancher on K3s because K3s is easier to use, and more lightweight, with a binary size of less than 100 MB. Note: After Rancher is installed on an RKE cluster, there is no migration path to a K3s setup at this time. The Rancher management server can only be run on Kubernetes cluster in an infrastructure provider where Kubernetes is installed using RKE or K3s. Use of Rancher on hosted Kubernetes providers, such as EKS, is not supported. diff --git a/content/rancher/v2.x/en/overview/architecture-recommendations/_index.md b/content/rancher/v2.x/en/overview/architecture-recommendations/_index.md index f7bf7597106..fd381be31e5 100644 --- a/content/rancher/v2.x/en/overview/architecture-recommendations/_index.md +++ b/content/rancher/v2.x/en/overview/architecture-recommendations/_index.md @@ -30,13 +30,13 @@ We recommend installing the Rancher server on a high-availability Kubernetes clu We don't recommend installing Rancher in a single Docker container, because if the node goes down, there is no copy of the cluster data available on other nodes and you could lose the data on your Rancher server. -Rancher needs to be installed on either a high-availability [RKE (Rancher Kubernetes Engine)]({{}}/rke/latest/en/) Kubernetes cluster, or a high-availability [K3s (5 less than K8s)]({{}}/k3s/latest/en/) Kubernetes cluster. Both RKE and K3s are fully certified Kubernetes distributions. +Rancher needs to be installed on either a high-availability [RKE (Rancher Kubernetes Engine)]({{}}/rke/latest/en/) Kubernetes cluster, or a high-availability [K3s (Lightweight Kubernetes)]({{}}/k3s/latest/en/) Kubernetes cluster. Both RKE and K3s are fully certified Kubernetes distributions. ### K3s Kubernetes Cluster Installations If you are installing Rancher v2.4 for the first time, we recommend installing it on a K3s Kubernetes cluster. One main advantage of this K3s architecture is that it allows an external datastore to hold the cluster data, allowing the K3s server nodes to be treated as ephemeral. -The option to install Rancher on a K3s cluster is a feature introduced in Rancher v2.4. K3s is easy to install, with half the memory of Kubernetes, all in a binary less than 50 MB. +The option to install Rancher on a K3s cluster is a feature introduced in Rancher v2.4. K3s is easy to install, with half the memory of Kubernetes, all in a binary less than 100 MB.
Architecture of a K3s Kubernetes Cluster Running the Rancher Management Server
![Architecture of a K3s Kubernetes Cluster Running the Rancher Management Server]({{}}/img/rancher/k3s-server-storage.svg)