--- name: rancher-upgrade description: >- Plan and sequence COMMUNITY-edition Rancher upgrades across air-gapped multi-cluster fleets — a management/"hosting" Rancher cluster plus the downstream RKE2/K3s clusters it provisions. Covers the community release model (2.11→2.15, community-vs-Prime cadence, EOL), the Kontainer Driver Metadata (KDM) matrix deciding which downstream k8s minors each Rancher version can manage (and the stranding risk when a host-Rancher bump outruns its sub-clusters), cross-cluster upgrade ordering, the embedded-CAPI→Rancher-Turtles migration, Fleet coupling, cert-manager/Helm/backup prerequisites, backup- restore-operator + etcd rollback, and the air-gapped upgrade procedure (which images/charts/KDM to mirror). Assumes the Helm-on-Kubernetes install. Community editions only; Prime content excluded. Companion to k8s-components-checker, which owns the management-cluster k8s compatibility verdict; this skill owns the upgrade methodology and downstream coordination. when_to_use: >- Use whenever the user mentions "rancher upgrade", "upgrade Rancher", "Rancher 2.X to 2.Y", "KDM", "which k8s can my Rancher manage", "downstream cluster stranded", "Rancher Turtles migration", "embedded cluster-api removed", "Fleet Helm v4", "Rancher air-gap upgrade", or "rancher-backup / cert-manager prerequisite" — or plans an upgrade of a Rancher management cluster and the downstream clusters under it, even without naming KDM or Turtles. NOT for Harvester, single-node Docker installs, or the single-cluster component-compat verdict (use k8s-components-checker). --- # rancher-upgrade Plan, sequence, and de-risk a **community-edition Rancher** upgrade across a real fleet: a management ("hosting") cluster and the downstream RKE2/K3s clusters it provisions. The hard part of a Rancher upgrade is almost never the `helm upgrade` itself — it's the **cross-cluster coordination**: a management-cluster Rancher bump silently changes which downstream Kubernetes versions the fleet can run, and getting the order wrong strands sub-clusters or forces a rebuild. **Community editions only.** SUSE Rancher Prime backports, Prime-only patches, and Prime support matrices are out of scope — flag them when they appear, never build a plan on them. House Rule #1. ## Companion to k8s-components-checker — who owns what This skill is the upgrade-methodology companion to `k8s-components-checker` (same repo), mirroring the `argo-cd-apps ↔ compat/argo-cd.md` split. The boundary is load-bearing — respect it to avoid drift: | Question | Skill | |----------|-------| | "Is Rancher version X compatible with the **management cluster's** k8s minor?" | **k8s-components-checker** — `references/compat/rancher.md` is the single source of truth for the mgmt-cluster k8s window per Rancher minor. **Cite it; never restate those numbers here.** | | "Is component Y (Cilium, Rook, …) OK on k8s 1.NN on one cluster?" | **k8s-components-checker** (per-cluster verdict) | | "How do I plan/sequence a Rancher version upgrade, and what happens to my **downstream** clusters?" | **this skill** | | "Which downstream RKE2/K3s k8s minors can Rancher 2.X manage?" (KDM) | **this skill** | | Harvester host→guest upgrade coordination | **`harvester-upgrade`** (same repo) — it owns the Harvester ladder. Load it *alongside* this skill when Harvester sits under the fleet: each Harvester hop is gated on upgrading the **external Rancher first**, so a Rancher plan here is the leading half of that pairing. Get the Harvester↔Rancher pairing from `harvester-upgrade`; never restate it here. | ## The mental model — two coupled axes A Rancher fleet upgrade moves on two axes that are **decoupled but ordered**: 1. **Management-cluster axis** — the k8s minor the Rancher server itself runs on, and the Rancher version. (k8s window → cite `compat/rancher.md`.) 2. **Downstream axis** — which RKE2/K3s k8s minors Rancher can *provision and manage*, governed by **Kontainer Driver Metadata (KDM)**, NOT by the management cluster's own k8s version. The rule that ties them: **introducing a downstream k8s *minor* requires upgrading Rancher first; downstream *patch* upgrades do not.** So the management Rancher always moves before any downstream minor bump — and a trailing downstream cluster can fall out of support when the host Rancher rolls forward. This is the single most common way a fleet upgrade goes wrong. See `references/kdm-downstream-matrix.md`. ## Workflow ### 1. Establish the change set and the fleet shape - **Install type first — this skill assumes the Helm-on-Kubernetes install.** The same command that gets the version answers this: an empty result means there is no Helm-managed `rancher` release, and the likeliest reason is a **single-node Docker install** (`docker run rancher/rancher`, still a documented method). That upgrades by stopping the container, backing up its data volume, and starting a new container from the newer image against the same volume — **no `helm upgrade`, no cert-manager chart, no BRO, no etcd snapshot, no KDM coordination.** Effectively nothing below applies. **Say so and stop** rather than emitting a Helm plan; point at the Rancher docs' single-node-with-Docker upgrade page. - **Versions:** current Rancher minor+patch, target Rancher minor. Get this from the cluster (`helm list -A -n cattle-system | grep rancher`), not from memory. - **Fleet shape:** does this Rancher actually provision downstream clusters? `kubectl get clusters.cluster.x-k8s.io -A` (populated = real fleet; empty = standalone mgmt cluster — the CAPI/Turtles migration is then a near-non-event). `kubectl get clusters.provisioning.cattle.io -A` — any row whose name ≠ `local` is a downstream cluster. - **Air-gap?** If the registry is internal-mirror-only, the air-gap procedure (what to mirror) applies — `references/air-gap-procedure.md`. (Direct-pull clusters skip mirroring entirely.) - **Kubeconfig path:** if the operator's kubeconfig is Rancher-proxied (`server` contains `/k8s/clusters/`), switch to a Rancher-independent admin kubeconfig BEFORE upgrading — `helm upgrade` of the rancher release restarts the proxy pods and severs the API mid-apply. `references/prereqs-and-ordering.md` § Pre-flight. ### 2. Compute the upgrade path (no minor skipping) The only supported path between minors is **latest-COMMUNITY-patch-of-current-minor → latest- COMMUNITY-patch-of-next-minor, one minor at a time** (2.11→2.12→2.13→2.14→2.15; never 2.11→2.14). Intra-minor patch jumps are fine. ⛔ **The rung is the community ceiling, not the newest tag.** Rancher ships both editions to one GitHub feed, so for every minor except the current one the newest tag is **Prime-only** and uninstallable here — `sort -V | tail -1` silently yields a target the operator cannot use. Derive each rung edition-aware (House Rule #1 + #3): `references/lifecycle.md` § Latest patch per minor. ### 3. For each minor step, run the pre-flight → upgrade → post-flight runbook The per-minor breaking changes and the ordered runbook live in `references/per-minor-runbook.md`. Prerequisites common to every step (cert-manager window, Helm floor, mandatory backup, RKE1 sweep, API aggregation layer) and the cross-cluster ordering + rollback floor are in `references/prereqs-and-ordering.md`. ### 4. Coordinate the downstream clusters Before bumping the host Rancher, check every downstream cluster's k8s minor against the **target** Rancher's KDM window (`references/kdm-downstream-matrix.md`). Lift any *trailing* downstream into the new window **first**, or it loses manageability after the host upgrade. After the host upgrade (which ships a new KDM branch), the newly-unlocked downstream minors become selectable — bump downstreams then. ### 5. Produce the plan Emit an ordered plan: per-minor-step pre-flight gates, the upgrade command (air-gap variant if applicable), post-flight verification, and the downstream-coordination steps interleaved at the right points. Cite the reference + grounded version for every specific claim. Recognizable shape: ``` — Rancher → (path: ) prerequisites - cert-manager · Helm · RKE1 sweep · BRO backup + etcd snapshot downstream - : k8s — source: references/kdm-downstream-matrix.md per step (×N) 1. pre-flight gates 2. upgrade mgmt Rancher 3. post-flight 4. bump downstream blockers - source: references/.md ``` Every cited version is cluster-reported or freshly `gh`-grounded (House Rule #3), never from memory; target versions follow look-ahead (House Rule #4). ## House rules (encode into every plan) 1. **Community editions only.** Flag Prime-gated versions/patches/features; never plan on them. The reliable community-vs-Prime signal is the GitHub release-notes first line — see `references/lifecycle.md`. 2. **Cite, don't restate, the mgmt-cluster k8s window.** That lives in `k8s-components-checker/references/compat/rancher.md`. Pointing at it keeps the two skills from drifting. 3. **Never invent versions; ground or abstain (House Rule #8 in k8s-components-checker).** k8s *windows* and KDM *mechanics* are methodology the skill states. Specific release/patch *numbers* — "latest 2.13 patch", "Turtles version on 2.14", "BRO chart for 2.12" — are volatile and the #1 fabrication risk. State a specific version only if it is cluster-reported, freshly grounded via `gh`, or explicitly marked `UNVERIFIED`. Grounding method (anti-confirmation): anchor on `gh api repos/rancher/rancher/releases/latest`, enumerate-and-derive the real latest patch, **never** ask "does vX.Y.Z exist?" (existence/list queries get rubber-stamped). `gh` must be run with **valid auth** from the operator's workstation — anonymous is 60 requests/hour and exhausts almost immediately on an enumeration sweep (`gh auth status` first). Repo map + protocol: `references/lifecycle.md` § Grounding. 4. **Look-ahead version targeting.** When recommending any target version, pick the one that covers the operator's *next* planned hop too, not the bare immediate minimum — a version sitting at its own support ceiling forces an avoidable second upgrade. (Same rule as k8s-components-checker House Rule #9.) **And ground the patch floor on advisories, not just on "latest".** Rancher ships security advisories in batches, and they set a *minimum* patch per minor that the latest-patch lookup does not tell you. Enumerate them the same way you enumerate releases: ```bash gh api repos/rancher/rancher/security-advisories --paginate \ --jq '.[] | "\(.severity) \(.published_at[0:10]) \(.ghsa_id) \(.summary)"' # then, for one advisory, the per-minor patched floors: gh api repos/rancher/rancher/security-advisories --paginate \ --jq '.[] | select(.ghsa_id=="GHSA-...") | .vulnerabilities[] | "\(.vulnerable_version_range) -> \(.first_patched_version)"' ``` One advisory sets several floors at once: CVE-2026-44945 (CRITICAL, cross-cluster impersonation) lists `< 2.14.2`, `< 2.13.8`, `< 2.12.12`, `< 2.11.16`. A ladder targeting "a recent 2.11" lands inside it. **`first_patched_version` is almost always null on this feed** — derive the floor from `vulnerable_version_range`; "no patched version listed" does not mean "no fix". **On community edition most of those floors are unreachable, and that decides the plan.** Rancher publishes community patches for a minor only while it is the newest minor; the day minor N+1 GAs, minor N's next patch becomes a Prime-docs redirect. Verified across every 2.11–2.15 release (2026-09-15): `v2.11.4` turned Prime the day 2.12.0 shipped, `v2.12.4` the day before 2.13.0, `v2.13.4` and `v2.14.4` on their successors' GA dates. So the community ceiling is frozen at the last patch before the next GA, while advisory floors keep climbing: | Minor | Community ceiling | Highest advisory floor | Reachable on community? | |-------|-------------------|------------------------|-------------------------| | 2.15 | v2.15.1 | 2.15.1 | **yes** | | 2.14 | v2.14.3 | 2.14.5 | no — 2 Prime-only patches | | 2.13 | v2.13.3 | 2.13.9 | no — 6 | | 2.12 | v2.12.3 | 2.12.13 | no — 10 | | 2.11 | v2.11.3 | 2.11.17 | no — 14 | **Consequence: every community minor except the newest is inside an unpatched CRITICAL.** 2.13, 2.12 and 2.11 all sit below CVE-2026-44939's floors (command injection via unsanitized YAML, `< 2.13.6` / `< 2.12.10` / `< 2.11.14`), and 2.13/2.12/2.11 below CVE-2026-44945's as well. There is no patch-in-place remediation for any of them. **So do not answer a community security question with a patch number.** The remediation is the minor hop — which makes House Rule #5's ladder the security path, not merely the supported one, and makes the look-ahead rule above mandatory rather than advisory: land on the newest minor or you land somewhere unpatchable. Re-derive both columns at plan time; the ceilings move only on a GA, but the floors move with every batch. 5. **Management Rancher upgrades BEFORE downstream k8s minor bumps**, always. And **no minor skipping** on the Rancher axis. Violating either is the classic fleet-stranding / rebuild path. 6. **Back up before every step.** An RKE2 etcd snapshot of the management cluster is the real rollback floor — the 2.14 CAPI-v1beta2 boundary is one-way without it. Add a backup-restore-operator backup *if BRO is installed*; many community installs have none, so don't block on it (substitute targeted resource exports — Rancher/Fleet objects + the auth AuthConfig & secrets). See `references/prereqs-and-ordering.md` § Backup & rollback. ## Decision guide | Task | Read | |------|------| | Community vs Prime, cadence, EOL, latest-patch grounding, `gh` repo map | `references/lifecycle.md` | | Which downstream k8s a Rancher minor can manage; stranding; air-gap KDM mirror | `references/kdm-downstream-matrix.md` | | cert-manager / Helm / backup prereqs, cross-cluster ordering, etcd rollback | `references/prereqs-and-ordering.md` | | embedded-CAPI→Turtles migration, CAPRKE2/CAAPF, Fleet per-minor + Helm v4 | `references/capi-turtles-fleet.md` | | Air-gapped upgrade: what to mirror, `helm upgrade` flags, downstream RKE2 SUC | `references/air-gap-procedure.md` | | Per-minor (2.11→2.15) breaking changes + ordered pre/upgrade/post runbook | `references/per-minor-runbook.md` | Each reference carries a header stating **what was grounded and when — and what was NOT re-derived on the latest pass**. Read that header before citing anything from the file: a claim under a "not re-derived" disclaimer must be re-grounded at use time regardless of the file's headline date. Otherwise re-ground per House Rule #3 **only if the stamp is stale** (≳1–2 weeks) — same-day re-grounding is wasted churn the operator will (rightly) push back on; don't present it as an unconditional step.