Upstream Kubernetes on Rocky Linux 9 OS¶
In our June 2023 monthly release, we added support for lifecycle management of Rafay managed upstream Kubernetes clusters on nodes based on Rocky Linux.
Rafay has supported CentOS as an operating system for upstream Kubernetes clusters. With the EOL of CentOS, several customers asked us to support Rocky Linux as an alternative.
Background¶
Rocky Linux is an open-source enterprise operating system designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Rocky Linux is a reliable and cost-effective choice for enterprises that need a stable and secure operating system.
Rocky Linux was founded in 2021 by Gregory Kurtzer, one of the co-founders of CentOS, after Red Hat discontinued CentOS. The OS is under intensive development by the community, and it is enterprise-ready, with regular updates and excellent stability.
Its compatibility with RHEL, focus on stability and security, low cost, customization options, and strong community support make it a good choice for many organizations.
Important
The latest version of Rocky Linux is v9.0 and the lifecycle for each release is ten years at zero cost.
Lifecycle Management¶
Customers can now use the Rafay platform to configure, provision and operate upstream Kubernetes clusters based on Rocky Linux 9 based nodes. Customers can use either the wizard style graphical interface or the declarative cluster specifications to provision these clusters. The OS is automatically detected and all required management components are automatically and remotely installed from the Rafay Controller.
Once provisioned, clusters can be scaled up/down and can be upgraded in-place to latest versions of Kubernetes. Shown below is a view of a Rocky Linux v9 based node in a Kubernetes cluster provisioned and managed by the Rafay Platform.
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