4 Component model #

By using:

you can create the necessary infrastructure and services. Further details for these components are described in the following sections.

Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government also known as RKE2, is Rancher’s next-generation Kubernetes distribution. It is a fully conformant Kubernetes distribution that focuses on security and compliance within the U.S. Federal Government sector. It solves the common frustration of installation complexity with Kubernetes by removing most host dependencies and presenting a stable path for deployment, upgrades, and rollbacks.

To meet these goals, Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government does the following:

With Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government we take lessons learned from developing and maintaining our lightweight Kubernetes distribution, K3s, and apply them to build an enterprise-ready distribution with K3s ease-of-use. What this means is that Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government is, at its simplest, a single binary to be installed and configured on all nodes expected to participate in the Kubernetes cluster. When started, Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government is then able to bootstrap and supervise role-appropriate agents per node while sourcing needed content from the network.

The fundamental roles for the nodes and core functionality of Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government are represented in the following figure:

Figure 4.1: Component Overview - Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government #

 

Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government brings together several open source technologies to make this all work:

All of these, except the NGINX Ingress Controller, are compiled and statically linked with ⁠^[4]

While all Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government roles can be installed on a single system, for the best availability, performance and security, the recommended deployment of a Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government cluster is a pair of nodes for the control plane role, at least three etcd role-based nodes and three or more worker nodes.

Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government can run as a complete cluster on a single node or can be expanded into a multi-node cluster. Besides the core Kubernetes components, these are also configurable and included:

All of these components are configurable and can be swapped out for your implementation of choice. With these included components, you get a fully functional and CNCF-conformant cluster so you can start running apps right away.

Tip

Learn more information about Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government at https://docs.rke2.io/.

While all Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government roles can be installed on a single system, a multi-node cluster, is a more production-like approach and will be described in the deployment section.

Tip

To improve availability, performance and security, the recommended deployment of a Rancher Kubernetes Engine Government cluster is a pair of nodes for the control plane role, at least three etcd role-based nodes and three or more worker nodes.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is an adaptable and easy-to-manage platform that allows developers and administrators to deploy business-critical workloads on-premises, in the cloud and at the edge. It is a Linux operating system that is adaptable to any environment – optimized for performance, security and reliability. As a multimodal operating system that paves the way for IT transformation in the software-defined era, this simplifies multimodal IT, makes traditional IT infrastructure efficient and provides an engaging platform for developers. As a result, one can easily deploy and transition business-critical workloads across on-premises and public cloud environments.

Designed for interoperability, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server integrates into classical Unix and Windows environments, supports open standard interfaces for systems management, and has been certified for IPv6 compatibility. This modular, general purpose operating system runs on four processor architectures and is available with optional extensions that provide advanced capabilities for tasks such as real time computing and high availability clustering. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is optimized to run as a high performing guest on leading hypervisors and supports an unlimited number of virtual machines per physical system with a single subscription. This makes it the perfect guest operating system for virtual computing.

Leveraging the enterprise grade functionality of the operating system mentioned in the previous section, many compute platforms can be the foundation of the deployment:

Note

To complete self-testing of hardware with SUSE YES Certified Process, you can download and install the respective SUSE operating system support-pack version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and the YES test suite. Then run the tests per the instructions in the test kit, fixing any problems encountered and when corrected, re-run all tests to obtain clean test results. Submit the test results into the SUSE Bulletin System (SBS) for audit, review and validation.

Tip

Certified systems and hypervisors can be verified via SUSE YES Certified Bulletins and then can be leveraged as supported nodes for this deployment, as long as the certification refers to the respective version of the underlying SUSE operating system required.

Supermicro servers take advantage of the latest CPU technologies available. The new servers have been shown to produce more work per watt than ever before. Thus, additional workloads can not only be performed in less time, but at a lower cost as well. Supermicro systems can support up to 6TB of memory per socket.

4.4.1 SYS-120C-TN10R Rack Servers #

 

Note

The Supermicro SYS-120C-TN10R is SUSE YES Certified Hardware.

The SYS-120C-TN10R Rack Servers provide the following attributes:

Ultimate Flexibility #

 

• CPU: Up to 270W and 40 cores

• Memory: 4TB DDR4-3200 memory in 16 DIMM slots w/ support of Intel Optane PMEM 200 series

• Storage: Up to 10x all hybrid drive bays (NVMe/SAS/SATA) + Flexible internal storage options (dual NVMe M.2 / SATADOM)

• Expansion: Up to 2 standard PCIe 4.0 FHHL expansion slots + 2 AIOM for OCP 3.0 NIC; Building block solution for different applications and environment

• 860W Platinum level redundant PWS

Efficient and Cost-Effective #

 

• Cost optimized for large volume deployment

• Tool-less mechanical design for rapid deployment

• Hot-swap storage and PWS for easy maintenance.

• IPMI, serial port and service tag for easy management

Compact #

 

• Compact system design makes no waste of internal space

• < 600mm chassis depth

• Fully utilized system resource with 12 NVMe, 4 PCIe 4.0 x16 + 2 PCIe 4.0 x8 expansion

Secure #

 

• Security is top priority

• TPM 1.2/2.0, signed firmware, Silicon Root of Trust

• Secure Boot, System Erase

• FIPS Compliance, Trusted Execution Environment

Application Ready #

 

• Balanced architecture between CPUs and optimized for scalable compute, database, GPU, tiered storage and I/O intensive applications

• Support open standards like OpenBMC and OCP 3.0

Keep it Green #

 

• Optimized thermal design

• High efficiency Platinum level PWS (AC/DC)

• Reduced waste with bulk packaging and customizable accessories

4.4.2 SYS-620C-TN12R Rack Servers #

 

Note

The Supermicro SYS-620C-TN12R is SUSE YES Certified Hardware.

The SYS-620C-TN12R Rack Servers provide the following attributes:

Ultimate Flexibility #

 

• CPU: Up to 270W and 40 cores

• Memory: 4TB DDR4-3200 memory in 16 DIMM slots w/ support of Intel Optane PMEM 200 series

• Storage: Up to 12 all hybrid drive bays (NVMe/SAS/SATA) + Flexible internal storage options (dual NVMe M.2 / SATADOM)

• Expansion: Up to 6 standard PCIe 4.0 expansion slots + 2 AIOM for OCP 3.0 NIC; Up to 2 FHFL DW GPUs or 6 LP GPUs

• Building block solution for different applications and environment

• 1200W Titanium level redundant PWS

Efficient and Cost-Effective #

 

• Cost optimized for large volume deployment

• Tool-less mechanical design for rapid deployment

• Hot-swap storage and PWS for easy maintenance.

• IPMI, serial port and service tag for easy management

Compact #

 

• Compact system design makes no waste of internal space

• < 650mm chassis depth

• Fully utilized system resource with 12 NVMe, 4 PCIe 4.0 x16 + 2 PCIe 4.0 x8 expansion

Secure #

 

• Security is top priority

• TPM 1.2/2.0, signed firmware, Silicon Root of Trust

• Secure Boot, System Erase

• FIPS Compliance, Trusted Execution Environment

Application Ready #

 

• Balanced architecture between CPUs and optimized for scalable compute, database, GPU, tiered storage and I/O intensive applications

• Cost and performance optimized down to component level

• Support open standards like OpenBMC and OCP 3.0

We Keep it Green #

 

• Optimized thermal design

• High efficiency Titanium level PWS (AC/DC)

• Reduced waste with bulk packaging and customizable accessories

Note

A sample bill of materials, in the Chapter 9, Appendix, cites the necessary quantites of all components, along with a reference to the minimum resource requirements needed by the software components.