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RKE2/K3s Configuration

This page will walk you through how to configure Rancher Kubernetes distributions (K3s, RKE2) to utilize the secured images instead of the upstream Docker hub images.

Usage with k3s​

To modify the system images that k3s uses upon bootstrapping, configure k3s' mirror settings as described here.

The full configuration using your authenticated registry is below:

# /etc/rancher/k3s/registries.yaml
configs:
  "YOUR_REGISTRY_DOMAIN_HERE":
    auth:
      username: <redacted>
      password: <redacted>

You will also need to utilize the system-default-registry flag when installing K3s to ensure it uses the registry. For instance:

curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh - --system-default-registry YOUR_REGISTRY_DOMAIN_HERE

Usage with rke2​

Similar to k3s, the SSF images are pulled upon bootstrapping by configuring rke2's mirroring configuration as described here.

The full configuration using the shared alpha account is below:

# /etc/rancher/rke2/registries.yaml
configs:
  "YOUR_REGISTRY_DOMAIN_HERE":
    auth:
      username: <redacted>
      password: <redacted>

You will also need to utilize the system-default-registry flag when installing RKE2 to ensure it uses the registry. For instance, if using the configuration file:

# /etc/rancher/rke2/config.yaml
node-name: controlplane1
write-kubeconfig-mode: 0640
system-default-registry: YOUR_REGISTRY_DOMAIN_HERE
...