Cluster Configuration

After you provision a Kubernetes cluster using Rancher, you can still edit options and settings for the cluster.

For information on editing cluster membership, go to this page.

Cluster Configuration References

The cluster configuration options depend on the type of Kubernetes cluster:

• RKE Cluster Configuration
• EKS Cluster Configuration
• GKE Cluster Configuration

Cluster Management Capabilities by Cluster Type

The options and settings available for an existing cluster change based on the method that you used to provision it.

The following table summarizes the options and settings available for each cluster type:

Rancher v2.5.8+

Action	Rancher Launched Kubernetes Clusters	EKS and GKE Clusters1	Other Hosted Kubernetes Clusters	Non-EKS or GKE Registered Clusters
Using kubectl and a kubeconfig file to Access a Cluster	✓	✓	✓	✓
Managing Cluster Members	✓	✓	✓	✓
Editing and Upgrading Clusters	✓	✓	✓	✓2
Managing Nodes	✓	✓	✓	✓3
Managing Persistent Volumes and Storage Classes	✓	✓	✓	✓
Managing Projects, Namespaces and Workloads	✓	✓	✓	✓
Using App Catalogs	✓	✓	✓	✓
Configuring Tools (Alerts, Notifiers, Logging, Monitoring, Istio)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Running Security Scans	✓	✓	✓	✓
Use existing configuration to create additional clusters	✓	✓	✓
Ability to rotate certificates	✓	✓
Ability to backup and restore Rancher-launched clusters	✓	✓		✓4
Cleaning Kubernetes components when clusters are no longer reachable from Rancher	✓
Configuring Pod Security Policies	✓	✓
Authorized Cluster Endpoint	✓

1. Registered GKE and EKS clusters have the same options available as GKE and EKS clusters created from the Rancher UI. The difference is that when a registered cluster is deleted from the Rancher UI, it is not destroyed.

2. Cluster configuration options can't be edited for registered clusters, except for K3s and RKE2 clusters.

3. For registered cluster nodes, the Rancher UI exposes the ability to cordon, drain, and edit the node.

4. For registered clusters using etcd as a control plane, snapshots must be taken manually outside of the Rancher UI to use for backup and recovery.

Rancher before v2.5.8

Action	Rancher Launched Kubernetes Clusters	Hosted Kubernetes Clusters	Registered EKS Clusters	All Other Registered Clusters
Using kubectl and a kubeconfig file to Access a Cluster	✓	✓	✓	✓
Managing Cluster Members	✓	✓	✓	✓
Editing and Upgrading Clusters	✓	✓	✓	✓1
Managing Nodes	✓	✓	✓	✓2
Managing Persistent Volumes and Storage Classes	✓	✓	✓	✓
Managing Projects, Namespaces and Workloads	✓	✓	✓	✓
Using App Catalogs	✓	✓	✓	✓
Configuring Tools (Alerts, Notifiers, Logging, Monitoring, Istio)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Running Security Scans	✓	✓	✓	✓
Use existing configuration to create additional clusters	✓	✓	✓
Ability to rotate certificates	✓		✓
Ability to backup and restore Rancher-launched clusters	✓	✓		✓3
Cleaning Kubernetes components when clusters are no longer reachable from Rancher	✓
Configuring Pod Security Policies	✓		✓
Authorized Cluster Endpoint	✓

1. Cluster configuration options can't be edited for registered clusters, except for K3s and RKE2 clusters.

2. For registered cluster nodes, the Rancher UI exposes the ability to cordon, drain, and edit the node.

3. For registered clusters using etcd as a control plane, snapshots must be taken manually outside of the Rancher UI to use for backup and recovery.