Rancher Manager v2.11 to v2.12 Upgrade

In this article I will show you how to upgrade the Rancher Manager from v2.11 to v2.12 using Helm. Helm makes managing Kubernetes applications like Rancher Manager incredibly simple - instead of dealing with dozens of YAML manifests, you work with a single chart that handles all the complexity. Upgrading becomes as easy as updating to a new chart version. Keeping Rancher Manager current ensures you have the latest features, security patches, and bug fixes.

So, let's get started…

Environment

• RKE2 Cluster and Rancher Manager

Rancher Manager Upgrade

1. Create sample apps

# exec on master node
kubectl create deployment nginx-test --image=nginx --replicas=1
kubectl expose deployment nginx-test --port=80 --target-port=80 
kubectl create ingress nginx-test --class=nginx --rule="nginx-test.at.lab/*=nginx-test:80"

nano /etc/hosts
---
172.20.20.67 nginx-test.at.lab

2. Create script for monitoring apps

# exec on master node
nano monitoring.sh
---
#!/bin/bash

# List of URLs to check
URLS=(
  "http://nginx-test.at.lab"
)

EXPECTED_STATUS=200  # expected HTTP status
INTERVAL=1           # seconds between checks

echo "📡 Starting Ingress monitoring..."
echo "Expected status: $EXPECTED_STATUS"
echo "Check interval: $INTERVAL seconds"
echo "Press Ctrl+C to stop."

while true; do

    for url in "${URLS[@]}"; do
        STATUS_CODE=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" "$url")

        if [ "$STATUS_CODE" -eq "$EXPECTED_STATUS" ]; then
            echo "✅ $(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') - $url is OK (HTTP $STATUS_CODE)"
        else
            echo "❌ $(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') - $url returned HTTP $STATUS_CODE"
        fi
    done

    sleep $INTERVAL
done

chmod +x monitoring.sh

3. Run monitoring script

# exec on master node
./monitoring.sh >> monitoring.log

# other panel/windows
tail -f monitoring.log
kubectl get po -n cattle-system --watch

4. Add rancher latest repo

# exec on master node
helm repo add rancher-latest https://releases.rancher.com/server-charts/latest
helm repo update
helm repo list
helm search repo rancher-latest/rancher --versions

5. Get existing rancher configuration

# exec on master node
helm get values rancher -n cattle-system -o yaml > values.yaml

6. Change mapping rancher to master node and set kubeconfig to rke2

# exec on master node
nano /etc/hosts
---
172.20.20.65 rancher.at.lab
172.20.20.67 #rancher.at.lab

export KUBECONFIG=/etc/rancher/rke2/rke2.yaml

6. Upgrade rancher

# exec on master node
helm upgrade rancher rancher-latest/rancher \
  --namespace cattle-system \
  --values values.yaml \
  --version=2.12.0

upgrade process

upgrade completed

7. Verification

8. Change mapping rancher to ingress node again and set kubeconfig to kubectx

# exec on master node
nano /etc/hosts
---
172.20.20.65 #rancher.at.lab
172.20.20.67 rancher.at.lab

source ~/.bashrc
kubectx

9. Operational test

Thank You.