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Is it possible to migrate a Rancher launched Kubernetes cluster between Rancher instances?

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Situation

Question

Is it possible to migrate a Rancher launched Kubernetes cluster from one Rancher server instance to another, e.g. to launch a custom cluster using one Rancher server, and then at a later time, to migrate this to be managed instead via a different Rancher instance?

Pre-requisites

  • A Kubernetes cluster launched and managed by Rancher v2.x

Answer

No, it is not possible to migrate a cluster between Rancher server instances. A feature request for this is tracked in GitHub Issue #16471.

Currently, if you launch a Kubernetes cluster in one Rancher instance, then later attempt to use the imported cluster feature to import this cluster into another Rancher instance, you will lose any ability to add or remove nodes from the cluster, perform etcd backups or disaster recovery, or to edit any of the cluster configuration. We would therefore strongly recommend against this. Instead, we recommend performing regular Rancher server backups, so that you can recover the Rancher server cluster in a disaster recovery scenario, ensuring successful on-going management of downstream clusters launched by the server.

Disclaimer

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