Day 14 : Rancher Desktop
Shaharyar Shakir
Welcome to Day 14 of my 30 Days – 30 Tools for Developers series!
Today, we’re exploring Rancher Desktop, a user-friendly app that brings Kubernetes clusters to your desktop for easy local development.
What is Rancher Desktop?
Rancher Desktop provides a local Kubernetes environment bundled with essential tools like kubectl, nerdctl, and helm, so you can build and test cloud-native apps without needing cloud infrastructure.
Why Developers Use Rancher Desktop
Local Kubernetes: No cloud needed, perfect for development and learning.
Multiple runtimes: Choose between containerd or dockerd.
Version switching: Quickly change Kubernetes versions for compatibility testing.
Integrated tools: kubectl, nerdctl, helm pre-configured for immediate use.
Getting Started
Download Rancher Desktop → Click Me
Install on your OS (Windows, macOS, or Linux).
Launch the GUI or use bundled CLI tools to create and manage clusters.
Real-World Use Case
Imagine you’re building a microservices application with Helm charts.
You want to ensure it works across different Kubernetes versions before deploying to production.
With Rancher Desktop, you can:
Spin up a local cluster.
Switch between Kubernetes versions in seconds.
Test your Helm deployments without needing cloud resources.
Conclusion
Rancher Desktop is an excellent way to practice Kubernetes locally, simplify testing, and accelerate cloud-native development.
❓ What’s your go-to tool for running Kubernetes locally?
Subscribe to my newsletter
Read articles from Shaharyar Shakir directly inside your inbox. Subscribe to the newsletter, and don't miss out.
Written by