Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE)

Big picture

Install Calico Enterprise on RKE.

Before you begin

CNI support

Calico CNI for networking with Calico Enterprise network policy:

The geeky details of what you get:

Policy	IPAM	CNI	Overlay	Routing	Datastore

Required

• A compatible RKE cluster

  For help, see Rancher Kubernetes Engine cluster. Note that RKE2 is a different Kubernetes distribution and documented separately.

• Configure your cluster for Calico Enterprise CNI

  • Create a Cluster Config File. In the config file under network, set the network plugin to plugin: none.
  note

  You cannot use the Rancher UI to set the RKE CNI set to "none".

• Cluster meets system requirements

• A Tigera license key and credentials.

• A kubectl environment with access to your cluster

  • Use Rancher kubectl Shell for access
  • Ensure you have the Kubeconfig file that was generated when you created the cluster.

• If using a Kubeconfig file locally, install and set up the Kubectl CLI tool.

How to

• Install Calico Enterprise
• Install the Calico Enterprise license

Install Calico Enterprise

1. Configure a storage class for Calico Enterprise..

2. Install the Tigera operator and custom resource definitions.

   kubectl create -f https://downloads.tigera.io/ee/v3.18.2/manifests/tigera-operator.yaml

3. Install the Prometheus operator and related custom resource definitions. The Prometheus operator is used to deploy Prometheus server and Alertmanager to monitor Calico Enterprise metrics.

   note

   If you have an existing Prometheus operator in your cluster that you want to use, skip this step. To work with Calico Enterprise, your Prometheus operator must be v0.40.0 or higher.

   kubectl create -f https://downloads.tigera.io/ee/v3.18.2/manifests/tigera-prometheus-operator.yaml

4. Install your pull secret.

   If pulling images directly from quay.io/tigera, you will likely want to use the credentials provided to you by your Tigera support representative. If using a private registry, use your private registry credentials instead.

   kubectl create secret generic tigera-pull-secret \
       --type=kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson -n tigera-operator \
       --from-file=.dockerconfigjson=<path/to/pull/secret>

   For the Prometheus operator, create the pull secret in the tigera-prometheus namespace and then patch the deployment.

   kubectl create secret generic tigera-pull-secret \
       --type=kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson -n tigera-prometheus \
       --from-file=.dockerconfigjson=<path/to/pull/secret>
   kubectl patch deployment -n tigera-prometheus calico-prometheus-operator \
       -p '{"spec":{"template":{"spec":{"imagePullSecrets":[{"name": "tigera-pull-secret"}]}}}}'

5. Install any extra Calico Enterprise resources needed at cluster start using calicoctl.

6. Install the Tigera custom resources. For more information on configuration options available in this manifest, see the installation reference.

   kubectl create -f https://downloads.tigera.io/ee/v3.18.2/manifests/custom-resources.yaml

   Monitor progress with the following command:

   watch kubectl get tigerastatus

   Wait until the apiserver shows a status of Available, then proceed to the next section.

Install the Calico Enterprise license

kubectl create -f </path/to/license.yaml>

Monitor progress with the following command:

watch kubectl get tigerastatus

Next steps

Recommended

• Configure access to Calico Enterprise Manager UI
• Authentication quickstart
• Configure your own identity provider

Recommended - Networking

• The default networking uses IP in IP encapsulation with BGP routing. For all networking options, see Determine best networking option.

Recommended - Security

• Get started with Calico Enterprise tiered network policy