Create a Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE2) cluster

This guide walks you through creating a Kubernetes cluster on Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE2) . RKE2 is a CNCF-certified Kubernetes distribution that you can run standalone or manage with the Rancher Kubernetes management platform.

The document assumes some experience with the platform. For more information, see the RKE2 official documentation .

Prerequisites

The following tools and access are required:

1. Linux hosts that meet the RKE2 requirements . For a production-like setup, use at least 3 nodes so the Operator can schedule a replica set according to the system requirements.

2. Root or sudo access on each host to install and start RKE2 services.

3. kubectl to manage and deploy applications on Kubernetes. Install it following the official installation instructions . RKE2 also ships a kubectl binary under /var/lib/rancher/rke2/bin/ on server nodes.

4. Optionally, a Rancher management server if you prefer to provision and manage the RKE2 cluster from the Rancher UI instead of installing RKE2 manually. See the Rancher documentation .

Create the RKE2 cluster

You can create the cluster with the RKE2 installation script or provision it through Rancher . Both approaches give you a standard Kubernetes API endpoint that the Operator uses.

Configure kubectl access

On a server node, RKE2 writes the kubeconfig to /etc/rancher/rke2/rke2.yaml. Copy it to your workstation and point kubectl at it:

mkdir -p ~/.kube
sudo cat /etc/rancher/rke2/rke2.yaml > ~/.kube/rke2.yaml
export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/rke2.yaml

If you connect from a remote machine, replace 127.0.0.1 in the kubeconfig server: URL with the reachable address of your RKE2 server node.

Verify that the nodes are ready:

kubectl get nodes

Configure storage

Percona Server for MongoDB needs PersistentVolumes for database data. Confirm that your cluster has a default StorageClass (or note the StorageClass name to set in the Custom Resource):

kubectl get storageclass

RKE2 does not always ship a default StorageClass. For testing, you can install the Local Path Provisioner . For production, use a CSI driver appropriate for your infrastructure, such as Longhorn when you manage the cluster with Rancher.

If Pods later stay in the Pending state because volumes cannot be provisioned, confirm that a StorageClass exists and that your Custom Resource references the correct one.

Delete the RKE2 cluster

To tear down a manually installed RKE2 cluster, run the uninstall script on each node (agent nodes first, then server nodes):

/usr/local/bin/rke2-uninstall.sh

If you provisioned the cluster with Rancher, delete the cluster from the Rancher UI instead.

Warning

After deleting the cluster, all data stored in it will be lost!

Next steps

Deploy the Operator and Percona Server for MongoDB.

Single-namespace deployment Multi-namespace deployment Install with Helm

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Last update: September 2, 2026
Created: September 2, 2026