# Use Rancher with SKS

This page is a step-by-step guide to creating an SKS cluster using SUSE Rancher. 

## Running Rancher

To show the entire process, we first need a running Rancher instance. Let's create one. First, we run an Exoscale instance of type Large, named `rancher`.

```bash
exo compute instance add rancher --instance-type large
```

> [!TIP]
> We can use the shortened version of this command
> `exo c i add rancher --instance-type large`

Next, we run a shell inside it. The `exo` CLI has a handy command for this purpose.

```bash
exo c i ssh rancher
```

Next, we install Docker as we'll use it to run Rancher.

```bash
curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | bash
```

Next, we add the current user to the `docker` group.

```bash
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
```

After this step, we need to close the shell and open a new one so the changes are applied.

Then, we install Rancher using the [single node installation method](https://ranchermanager.docs.rancher.com/getting-started/installation-and-upgrade/other-installation-methods/rancher-on-a-single-node-with-docker).

> [!NOTE]
> We should not use the installation method in a production environment, but it
> is perfectly fine for this guide.

```bash
docker run -d --restart=unless-stopped \
  --name rancher \
  -p 80:80 -p 443:443 \
  --privileged \
  rancher/rancher:latest
```

Using the instance's IP address, 194.182.165.191 in this example, we can access Rancher's UI.

![Login](./login-1.png)

We retrieve the bootstrap password from the container's logs using the provided command. 

```bash
ubuntu@rancher:~$ docker logs rancher 2>&1 | grep "Bootstrap Password"
2025/11/06 10:55:55 [INFO] Bootstrap Password: j4s9bqblx2rrl4xkfcgnh8q48dqm5mcvdxmcbn8zb5hxqpskd7glpm
```

We use this password to log in for the first time. Then, we get a new password.

![Login](./login-2.png)

We can then access the dashboard. This one shows only a local k3s cluster installed on the instance we created.

![dashboard](./dashboard.png)

In the next section, we'll go through the process of managing an SKS cluster with Rancher.

## Adding Exoscale cluster driver

By default, if we click the `Create` button, we can only create a hosted cluster in AWS, Azure, or Google.

![Cluster creation](./cluster-creation.png)

Rancher lets you enable other providers via the "Drivers" -> "Cluster Drivers" menu. 

![Cluster drivers list](./cluster-drivers-list-1.png)

Rancher also allows you to add other providers via a cluster driver. To add the [Exoscale cluster driver](https://github.com/exoscale/kontainer-engine-driver-sks), we first click the `Create` button and enter the following information:

- Download URL: https://github.com/exoscale/kontainer-engine-driver-sks/releases/download/v0.0.1/kontainer-engine-driver-sks_0.0.1_linux_amd64
- Checksum: 2f1dea48f07baad1634101cf6311a6342bbb444f1039a4fbe2f1d9f02f31d4cc ([from this file](https://github.com/exoscale/kontainer-engine-driver-sks/releases/download/v0.0.1/checksums.txt))
- Custom UI URL: https://exoscale.github.io/kontainer-engine-driver-sks/component.js
- whitelist domains: `*.github.io` and `*.exoscale.com`

![Adding cluster driver](./adding-cluster-driver.png)

It only takes a few seconds for the new driver to be activated.

![Cluster drivers list](./cluster-drivers-list-2.png)

On the cluster creation page, we can now create an Exoscale-managed cluster.

![Cluster creation](./cluster-creation-2.png)

Clicking the `Exoscale SKS` button launches the cluster creation assistant. First, we need to provide the cluster's name and an Exoscale key pair (ACCESS_KEY, SECRET_ACCESS_KEY) so Rancher can communicate with the Exoscale API.

![Add SKS cluster](./add-sks-cluster-1.png)

{{< callout type="">}}
If you need to create a key pair, please follow the details below.

{{% details title="creating an Exoscale key pair" closed="true" %}}

First, go to the [Exoscale portal](https://portal.exoscale.com/) and create a Role with access to the `Compute` Service Class from the IAM menu

![Role](./exo-role.png)

Next, create a key for this role.

![Key](./exo-key-1.png)

We then obtain the access key and secret key, which are ready for use. 

![Key](./exo-key-2.png)

{{% /details %}}

{{< /callout >}}

Next, we need to provide the following information:
- the zone to launch the cluster
- the Kubernetes version we need
- the control-plane level (`starter` or `pro`)

![Add SKS cluster](./add-sks-cluster-2.png)

Next, we need to specify the Node Pools to create for our cluster. In this example, we create a single Node Pool with 2 Medium instances.

![Add SKS cluster](./add-sks-cluster-3.png)

Then, it only takes a few minutes to have the cluster up and running and available in Rancher.

![Add SKS cluster](./add-sks-cluster-5.png)

We can now manage our SKS cluster and deploy some applications using Rancher.

![Add SKS cluster](./add-sks-cluster-6.png)