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Billy Tat
29 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
29 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Rancher Server and Components
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---
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<head>
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<link rel="canonical" href="https://ranchermanager.docs.rancher.com/reference-guides/rancher-manager-architecture/rancher-server-and-components"/>
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</head>
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The majority of Rancher 2.x software runs on the Rancher Server. Rancher Server includes all the software components used to manage the entire Rancher deployment.
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The figure below illustrates the high-level architecture of Rancher 2.x. The figure depicts a Rancher Server installation that manages two downstream Kubernetes clusters: one created by RKE and another created by Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service).
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For the best performance and security, we recommend a dedicated Kubernetes cluster for the Rancher management server. Running user workloads on this cluster is not advised. After deploying Rancher, you can [create or import clusters](../../how-to-guides/new-user-guides/kubernetes-clusters-in-rancher-setup/kubernetes-clusters-in-rancher-setup.md) for running your workloads.
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The diagram below shows how users can manipulate both [Rancher-launched Kubernetes](../../how-to-guides/new-user-guides/launch-kubernetes-with-rancher/launch-kubernetes-with-rancher.md) clusters and [hosted Kubernetes](../../how-to-guides/new-user-guides/kubernetes-clusters-in-rancher-setup/set-up-clusters-from-hosted-kubernetes-providers/set-up-clusters-from-hosted-kubernetes-providers.md) clusters through Rancher's authentication proxy:
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<figcaption>Managing Kubernetes Clusters through Rancher's Authentication Proxy</figcaption>
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You can install Rancher on a single node, or on a high-availability Kubernetes cluster.
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A high-availability Kubernetes installation is recommended for production.
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A Docker installation of Rancher is recommended only for development and testing purposes. The ability to migrate Rancher to a high-availability cluster depends on the Rancher version.
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The Rancher backup operator can be used to migrate Rancher from the single Docker container install to an installation on a high-availability Kubernetes cluster. For details, refer to the documentation on [migrating Rancher to a new cluster](../../how-to-guides/new-user-guides/backup-restore-and-disaster-recovery/migrate-rancher-to-new-cluster.md).
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The Rancher server, regardless of the installation method, should always run on nodes that are separate from the downstream user clusters that it manages. If Rancher is installed on a high-availability Kubernetes cluster, it should run on a separate cluster from the cluster(s) it manages. |