Rancher and Kubernetes (K8s for short) are two different software projects. They have relations but also have some differences. The following is a description of the relationship and differences between Rancher and Kubernetes:
Relationship:
Rancher is an open source platform for managing and deploying container applications, while Kubernetes is an open source container orchestration system. Rancher can use Kubernetes as its underlying container orchestration engine, and can also support other container orchestration tools.
difference:
1. Features
Rancher provides the ability to manage, monitor and expand Kubernetes clusters, as well as its own container orchestration engines, such as Cattle, Swarm and Mesos. Kubernetes focuses on container orchestration and container cluster management, providing powerful deployment, scaling, service discovery, load balancing and other functions.
2. Architecture
Rancher is an independent platform that can run on various infrastructures, such as physical servers, virtual machines or cloud platforms. Kubernetes is a more low-level container orchestration system, mainly used to manage and orchestrate container applications.
3. Deployment mode
Rancher provides a centralized Web interface for management and configuration, so that users can easily deploy and manage container applications in multiple environments. Kubernetes provides command line tools and APIs to define and manage applications by writing YAML files.
Both Rancher and Kubernetes are tools designed for container application deployment and management. Rancher is a more advanced platform, providing support for multiple container orchestration engines, and providing a more user-friendly management interface through a centralized Web interface. Kubernetes is a lower level container orchestration system, which focuses on container cluster management and orchestration functions, and is configured and managed through command line tools and APIs. In actual use, you can choose the appropriate tools according to your needs and technical level.
