Install Rancher on Ubuntu 24.04

This guide intends to teach you how to install Rancher on Ubuntu 24.04. As explained on the official Rancher website, Rancher is a container management platform built for organizations that deploy containers in production. Rancher makes it easy to run Kubernetes everywhere, meet IT requirements, and empower DevOps teams.

You can proceed to the guide steps below provided by the Orcacore website to install Rancher by using Docker on Ubuntu 24.04.

Step-by-Step Install Rancher on Ubuntu 24.04

Before you start the Rancher installation, you must have SSH login access to your Ubuntu 24.04 as a non-root user with sudo privileges. If you want to create a sudo user, you can check this guide on how to create a sudo user on Ubuntu 24.04.

Now, follow the steps below to complete the Rancher Kubernetes Panel setup on Ubuntu 24.04.

Step 1. Installing Docker

First, run the system update and install required packages with the commands below:

# sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
# sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg2 software-properties-common -y

Then, use the commands below to add the Docker GPG key:

# sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
# sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
# sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

Next, add the Docker repo to your server with the command below:

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

Finally, run the system update and install Docker:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin -y

The Docker service will be activated during the installation. If you don’t want to use sudo for the Docker command, you need to add your user to the Docker group with the following command:

sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}

Verify your Docker installation by checking its version:

docker version

Note: For a full Docker setup, you can check this guide on How to Install Docker CE on Ubuntu 24.04.

Step 2. Deploy and Run Rancher Container

At this point, you can create a new Rancher server container by using the following command:

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

In your output, you will see:

Note: If you have ports 80 & 443 used by other apps, you can use different ports. For example:

docker run -d --privileged \
 --restart=unless-stopped \
 -p 8080:80 \
 -p 8443:443 \
 --name rancher \
 rancher/rancher

Now you can check your Rancher container is up and running on Ubuntu 24.04 with the command below:

docker ps

In your output, you must see:

Step 3. Get Rancher Bootstrap Password

To access Rancher Web UI, you must have the bootstrap password. To get the password, you can run the following command:

docker logs  rancher  2>&1 | grep "Bootstrap Password:"

In your output, you will see something similar to this:

Copy and paste the password into your notes for the next steps.

Step 4. Access Rancher Kubernetes Panel

In this step, you can easily access the Rancher Web UI by typing your server’s IP address in your web browser. You can get the public IP address by using the command below:

sudo curl icanhazip.com

Now access Rancher by using the URL below:

https://server_ip

You will see the Rancher welcome screen. Enter the bootstrap password and click Log in with local user.

Then, click on Set a specific password to use to change the default Admin user password. Accept the licence agreements and click Continue.

Now you have access to Rancher Kubernetes Panel on Ubuntu 24.04.

Rancher Kubernetes Cluster

To create a Kubernetes cluster, click on Cluster Management, click on Clusters, and Create.

Note: In a Production environment, you’ll need at least three nodes: one master node and two worker nodes.

You will see three options for creating a cluster:

• Create a cluster in a hosted Kubernetes provider

• Provision new nodes and create a cluster using RKE2/K3s

• Use existing nodes and create a cluster using RKE2/K3s

Choose your desired option to deploy a new cluster or import an existing cluster and manage from the Rancher Dashboard.

FAQs

Conclusion

At this point, you have learned to install Rancher on Ubuntu 24.04. You can easily install Docker, deploy and run a Rancher container, and access the Rancher Kubernetes Panel on Ubuntu 24.04. Hope you enjoy using it. Please subscribe to us on Facebook, X, and YouTube.

You may also like to read the following articles:

Install XRDP Server Remote Desktop on Debian 13

Use Let’s Encrypt on Private Network with Cloudflare

Enable time synchronization on AlmaLinux 10