What’s new in Rancher v1.6.11?


Let’s explore the new software and features in the latest release of Rancher, which you can use by running the rancher/server:v1.6.11{.markup–code .markup–p-code} image. Check our documentation on Installing Rancher Server if you need help running Rancher.

NOTE: Keep in mind that Rancher v1.6.11 is tagged as latest, which means it’s not ready for production use. Our current, stable version recommended for use in production is Rancher v1.6.10.

Kubernetes

Kubernetes 1.8.3

We’ve added Kubernetes 1.8.3 to this release. For all the information on new features and improvements in Kubernetes 1.8, see the release blog post. This update also allows you to run Docker 1.12.6, 1.13.1, and 17.03.2, as Kubernetes 1.8 supports these versions.

Azure Cloud Provider Support

In our Kubernetes 1.8.3 catalog item, it is possible to configure Azure as a cloud provider for Kubernetes. This means you can:

  • Use Azure Load Balancer by using type: LoadBalancer{.markup–code .markup–p-code}
  • Use Azure Blob/Managed Disks by specifying kind: StorageClass{.markup–code .markup–p-code} and kind: PersistentVolumeClaim{.markup–code .markup–p-code}
  • Mount Azure File share by using azureFile{.markup–code .markup–p-code} inside a volumes{.markup–code .markup–p-code} definition.

Ability to Change Subnet for Kubernetes

In previous configurations, the Kubernetes subnet was hardcoded to 10.43.0.0/16{.markup–code .markup–p-code}. Now parameterized, you can configure all the parameters to your liking.

Rancher/Cattle

Docker

The latest stable version, Docker 17.09, is supported when using Cattle orchestration.

Draining Connections on Load-Balanced Services

Are you getting HTTP Bad Gateway (502){.markup–code .markup–p-code} errors when upgrading a load-balanced service? Rancher v1.6.11 comes with a load balancer that can drain connections before stopping the container. Inside the load-balanced service definition in rancher-compose.yml{.markup–code .markup–p-code}, it is now possible to specify drain_timeout_ms{.markup–code .markup–p-code} as an amount of milliseconds to wait before stopping the container. Check out the Rancher Docs for more information.

Clustered MySQL Support

We’ve had a large number of requests to be able to use Rancher with a clustered MySQL setup which requires a primary key on all tables, like Percona XtraDB with pxc_strict_mode = ENFORCING or MASTER{.markup–code .markup–p-code} or some cloud solutions. By adding --db-strict-enforcing{.markup–code .markup–p-code} to the docker run{.markup–code .markup–p-code} command, you can now use those clustered databases as database for Rancher.

Prune Services No Longer Specified in Rancher CLI

The Rancher CLI v0.6.5 now compares the specified services in the current stack to those in the new stack. If a service is no longer specified in the new stack, it will be removed when you use rancher up --prune{.markup–code .markup–p-code}.

Infrastructure Services Updates & Fixes

Here’s a quick mention of some great improvements to infrastructure services:

  • GitHub issue 9957 — We’ve applied CPU restrictions to the metadata container, which should help in the events of scaling up. Before, the load on the systems could get really high which could impact the services running on it.
  • GitHub issue 9971 — This is a huge improvement on the IPsec side. Tunnels that were interrupted would not recover after a certain period of time, but in this release we included retry logic to re-establish those connections.

Final Note

Hopefully, you all enjoy the new, improved stuff on which the team has been working hard. This post includes a subset; read the full release notes to see what else is new and improved. You can also subscribe to the Rancher Forums announcements so you get a notification every time there is a new release. For Kubernetes users, be aware of this bug that will restart all containers when you upgrade to version 1.8. If you run into any issues, you can ask a question on the Rancher Forums, jump on our Rancher Users Slack channel, or file an issue on GitHub.

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