Rancher 1.6 Docs

Kubernetes - Disaster Recovery

Rancher runs up to 3 instances of etcd on 3 different hosts. If a majority of hosts running etcd fail, follow these steps:

1. In Kubernetes -> Infrastructure Stacks, expand the Kubernetes stack. Click on the etcd service. Find a kubernetes-etcd container that is in running state. Exec into the container, by using Execute Shell. In the shell, run etcdctl cluster-health.
   • If the last output line reads cluster is healthy, then there is no disaster, stop immediately.
   • If the last output line reads cluster is unhealthy, make a note of this kubernetes-etcd container. This is your sole survivor. All other containers can be replaced as you will use this container to scale up.
2. Delete the hosts in Disconnected state. Confirm that none of these hosts are running your sole survivor.
3. Exec into the container that is your sole survivor. In the shell, run disaster. The container will restart automatically and etcd will heal itself to become a single-node cluster. System functionality will be restored.
4. Add NEW hosts until you have at least the number of hosts that were previously running etcd. Old hosts will contain an etcd data volume and back-ups that will cause problems. If you are unable to add new hosts, you can follow Cleaning up hosts to clean the host properly before adding it again. We recommend running at least 3 hosts and if you are using separated planes, don’t forget to add the label etcd=true to your hosts. Etcd will scale back up as hosts are added and start running the etcd service. In most cases, everything will automatically heal. If new/dead containers are stuck in initializing after three minutes, exec into those containers and run delete. Do not, under any circumstance, run the delete command on your sole survivor.