Simplifying Kubernetes Cluster Management in Multi-Cloud Environments by Michel Schildmeijer, 21 March 2024

The Challenges of Multi-Cloud Kubernetes Complex architecture Managing clusters across multiple clouds means increased complexity in networking, security policies, identity management, etc. Heterogeneous environments Each cloud has unique APIs, features, constraints that need to be handled individually. Lack of consistency Without centralized control, there is lack of standardization in configurations, policies, etc. across clusters. Managing Kubernetes across clouds introduces significant complexity that needs to be addressed.

Simplifying Kubernetes Cluster Management in Multi-Cloud Environments Avoid vendor lock-in Multicluster management allows running Kubernetes across multiple cloud providers, avoiding lock-in to any single vendor. Optimize costs Can choose cloud provider based on cost optimization for each workload. High availability Spread clusters across regions/zones for high availability. Multicluster management is key for flexibility, cost savings, and high availability when running Kubernetes across multiple clouds.

Benefits of Kubernetes Multicluster Management Cost reduction with shared infrastructure Sharing the underlying infrastructure reduces costs compared to managing separate infrastructure for each cluster. Improved resource utilization Resources can be allocated dynamically between clusters based on demand, improving overall utilization. Simplified operations Managing multiple clusters from a single control plane simplifies operations and reduces management overhead. Increased availability Spreading applications across clusters in different regions improves availability in case of outages. Managing Kubernetes clusters collectively through multicluster management provides operational, economic, and availability benefits.

Simplifying Kubernetes Cluster Management in Multi-Cloud Environments Challenges of multi-cloud Kubernetes Managing Kubernetes clusters across multiple clouds presents challenges like inconsistent tooling, fragmented visibility, and complexity in networking, security, and compliance. Consistent abstraction layer A Kubernetes API-centric management plane provides a consistent abstraction layer across major public clouds to streamline operations. Centralized control plane A centralized control plane enables unified visibility, security, access controls, and automation across multi- cloud Kubernetes environments. Portability and flexibility Cluster templates and infrastructure-as-code approach facilitate seamless migration of workloads across cloud providers. Optimized costs and performance Intelligent placement and autoscaling optimize costs and performance by matching workloads to appropriate clusters. 5

RHACM 6

Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management Overview Centralized management Provides a single pane of glass for managing Kubernetes clusters across multiple clouds and on-prem environments Policy-based governance Enables setting policies to ensure clusters comply with organizational standards for security and configuration Lifecycle management Automates provisioning, scaling, and upgrading of Kubernetes clusters Monitoring and observability Collects metrics and logs for performance monitoring, alerting, and troubleshooting RHACM provides a unified control plane to simplify management, governance, and operations for Kubernetes clusters across hybrid cloud environments.

Policy based Governance, Risk and Compliance Enable auto- remediation Use Ansible Automation to auto-remediate policy violations. Gain visibility into compliance Get visibility into auditing of app and cluster configurations for compliance. Continuously monitor compliance Policy controllers continuously monitor clusters and enforce compliance. Centrally define and enforce policies Set and enforce policies for security, apps, infrastructure across multiple clusters. Support major policy engines Support built-in, Open Policy Agent and Kyverno policy engines. 8

RHACM components

Seamless Scalability Use auto-scaling features to automatically add or remove nodes based on demand. Implement auto-scaling Determine the application's scalability needs in terms of capacity, performance, and cost. Define scalability requirements Continuously monitor performance and cost to find opportunities to optimize scalability. Monitor and optimize Deploy across multiple clouds to provide geographic coverage and guard against cloud outages. Leverage multi-cloud Architect the application to scale out across multiple nodes rather than scaling up a single node. Design for horizontal scalability 10

Overview of Rancher Rancher makes it easy to run Kubernetes everywhere, meet IT requirements, and empower DevOps teams.

Key Features of Rancher Run Kubernetes everywhere Support for RKE, managed Kubernetes like GKE/EKS/AKS, and imported clusters Meet IT requirements Centralized auth, access control, monitoring across clusters/clouds Empower DevOps teams Intuitive UI, app catalog, integrations with ecosystem tools Rancher makes Kubernetes easy to use everywhere through centralized control and developer empowerment.

Rancher Overview Simplify Kubernetes management Rancher provides a GUI and CLI to manage Kubernetes clusters across cloud providers. Multi-cluster management Rancher enables managing multiple Kubernetes clusters from a single control plane. Security and access control Rancher integrates with authentication providers and enables RBAC for access control. App catalog and automation Rancher provides a catalog of apps and automation tools like pipelines to deploy apps. Rancher simplifies Kubernetes management: Centralized control plane , robust access control automation capabilities.

Working with Rancher Provisioning Kubernetes Clusters Catalog Management Managing Projects The Rancher API server can provision Kubernetes on existing nodes, or perform Kubernetes upgrades. Rancher provides the ability to use a catalog of Helm charts that make it easy to repeatedly deploy applications. A project is a group of multiple namespaces and access control policies within a cluster. Rancher allows managing namespaces as a group and perform Kubernetes operations in them. Fleet Continuous Delivery Integrating with Istio Within Rancher, Fleet Continuous Delivery can deploy applications from git repositories to downstream Kubernetes clusters automatically. Rancher's Istio integration allows operators to deliver Istio to developers to enforce policies, troubleshoot, and manage traffic. 14

Use Cases Multi-cloud & hybrid cloud deployments RHACM helps manage Kubernetes clusters across public clouds like AWS, Azure, and private data centers GitOps based deployment Rancher uses GitOps to manage infrastructure as code and enable continuous delivery Security and compliance RHACM provides role-based access control, security policies, and integration with security tools RHACM & Rancher provide powerful tools to simplify Kubernetes management across diverse environments.

Best Practices Adopt GitOps Automate Provisioning Use Policy Guardrails Use GitOps methodology and tools like Argo CD to declaratively manage cluster configuration. Leverage Terraform or similar IaC tools to automate cluster provisioning. Apply OPA/Gatekeeper policies to enforce security and governance best practices. Monitor Resource Usage Backup Regularly Monitor cluster resource usage and tune limits and requests appropriately. Implement backup policies to backup critical cluster data and configurations. 16

Rancher Multicluster Management 17

Differences between RHACM and Rancher Feature Rancher RHACM Installation Self-hosted or SaaS Managed by Red Hat Kubernetes Distributions Any CNCF certified distribution OpenShift clusters only Multi-cluster management Any Kubernetes cluster Any OpenShift cluster 18

Benefits for DevOps teams Simple and Consistent Deployment A consistent Kubernetes deployment workflow provides flexibility across all major cloud providers and on-prem environments Automated Infrastructure Provisioning Automating cluster creation, configuration and management saves time and reduces errors Centralized Cluster Management Managing Kubernetes clusters from a single control plane simplifies operations across environments Simplifying Kubernetes deployments and management with a consistent workflow and centralized control plane provides DevOps teams with increased flexibility, automation and operational efficiency.

Conclusion RHACM integrates with OpenShift and offers features like cluster lifecycle and application management, policy management, and observability. Rancher is an open-source platform that supports any certified Kubernetes distribution Both have different strengths and weaknesses based on user needs and preferences. RHACM is suitable for users who want to leverage the Red Hat ecosystem and expertise, Rancher offers more flexibility and customization options. 20