What is SUSE Rancher for AWS?

What is Rancher?

Rancher is a Kubernetes management tool to deploy and run clusters anywhere and on any provider.

Rancher can provision Kubernetes from a hosted provider, provision compute nodes and then install Kubernetes onto them, or import existing Kubernetes clusters running anywhere.

Rancher adds significant value on top of Kubernetes, first by centralizing authentication and role-based access control (RBAC) for all of the clusters, giving global admins the ability to control cluster access from one location.

It then enables detailed monitoring and alerting for clusters and their resources, ships logs to external providers, and integrates directly with Helm via the Application Catalog. If you have an external CI/CD system, you can plug it into Rancher, but if you don’t, Rancher even includes Fleet to help you automatically deploy and upgrade workloads.

Rancher is a complete container management platform for Kubernetes, giving you the tools to successfully run Kubernetes anywhere.

What is SUSE Rancher for AWS?

SUSE Rancher for AWS is available through the AWS Marketplace and provides a centralized control plane to manage, monitor, and scale Kubernetes clusters within an AWS environment.

Capabilities

SUSE Rancher for AWS (SRA/SRFA) simplifies Amazon EKS cluster creation with:

Deployment Architecture

Hosted securely within AWS and fully managed by SUSE as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering.

Cluster Operations

Enables administrators to provision, import, and centrally manage Amazon EKS clusters and other Kubernetes workloads from a single interface.

Access and Governance

Consolidates cluster security through built-in authentication, role-based access control (RBAC), and global policy enforcement.

AWS Integrations

Native integration with AWS services, including Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q, to extend cluster environments with generative AI capabilities.

Self-Service

Streamlines cluster creation for developers and platform teams.

Simple Wizard

Uses t-shirt sizing (S/M/GPU) instead of standard AWS instance types.

Real-Time Cost Estimates

Provides cost estimates before provisioning.

Unified Billing

Consolidates subscription and usage costs directly into your existing AWS account.

Secure by Default

Automatically integrates with IAM roles and Pod Identity.

Vendor Support

Includes enterprise-grade technical support directly from SUSE.

SUSE Rancher for AWS is a distinct, fully managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering. This differs from deploying and managing the Rancher server manually on Amazon EKS. If you intend to install and manage your own Rancher deployment on an EKS cluster, refer to Installing Rancher on Amazon EKS.

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