Rancher Agents: Cattle Cluster Agent, Cattle Node Agent, Rancher System Agent
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Key Takeaways
Rancher uses different agents to manage Kubernetes clusters effectively. Here's a summary of the roles and usage of each one of them:
| Agent | Type | Namespace | Purpose | Used By | Not Used By |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cattle-cluster-agent | Deployment | cattle-system | Connects to Rancher server via CATTLE_SERVER, opens tunnel, handles cluster-level API communication | All clusters (RKE, RKE2, K3s, imported, cloud-managed) | None - required for all |
| cattle-node-agent | DaemonSet | cattle-system | Node-level operations, API fallback via Docker | Rancher-launched RKE (RKE1) clusters only | RKE2, K3s, imported clusters, cloud-managed clusters (EKS, GKE, AKS) |
End-to-End Kubernetes with Rancher, RKE2, K3s, Fleet, Longhorn, and NeuVector
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