rancher/rke
Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE), an extremely simple, lightning fast Kubernetes distribution that runs entirely within containers. observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
93/100
- Activity 94
- Release rhythm 87
- Longevity 100
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 7
- age_days: 3234
- days_rel: 91
- days_push: 40
- n_releases_24m: 40
Adoption not part of the score
3296 stars · 590 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded
Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE) is a CLI tool that installs and manages Kubernetes clusters entirely within Docker containers, using a simple cluster.yml configuration file. It is now end-of-life, with version 1.8 being the final release and users encouraged to migrate to RKE2.
Use cases
- bootstrap a kubernetes cluster on bare metal with docker
- install kubernetes from a cluster.yml config file
- set up a high-availability rancher cluster
- deploy kubernetes without kubeadm complexity
- upgrade and manage existing rke kubernetes clusters
- provision multi-node kubernetes over ssh
When to choose
- you maintain an existing RKE 1.x cluster and need the final supported release
- you need a container-based Kubernetes installer on legacy infrastructure already running RKE
When to avoid
- starting a new Kubernetes deployment - use RKE2 or k3s instead
- you need long-term support or security updates
- you want a Kubernetes distribution without Docker dependency
Facets
cli-tool · maturity maintenance
container-orchestration deployment cli infrastructure-as-code cloud-computing infrastructure-as-code self-hosted windows cli cross-platform kubernetes kubernetes-installer rancher end-of-life rke2-successor containers devops linux macos docker
1 source
- readme: https://github.com/rancher/rke · fetched 2026-08-28 · 0c98b8fbcc87
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| rancher/rke | main | 93 |
For agents
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem