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  1. Stackups
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  5. Flux CD vs Rancher Fleet

Flux CD vs Rancher Fleet

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Flux CD
Flux CD
Stacks81
Followers76
Votes1
GitHub Stars6.9K
Forks1.1K
Rancher Fleet
Rancher Fleet
Stacks13
Followers72
Votes4
GitHub Stars1.6K
Forks248

Flux CD vs Rancher Fleet: What are the differences?

Introduction In this article, we will compare Flux CD and Rancher Fleet, two popular tools used for managing and deploying applications in a Kubernetes environment. Markdown code will be used to format the content for a website.

  1. Installation: Flux CD provides a dedicated command-line tool for installation, while Rancher Fleet requires the use of a Kubernetes manifest or Helm chart. Flux CD can be quickly installed using a single command, making it more beginner-friendly. Rancher Fleet's installation process involves a bit more setup and configuration, which may be suitable for advanced users looking for more control and flexibility.

  2. Scalability: Rancher Fleet is designed to handle larger-scale deployments, supporting thousands of clusters and tens of thousands of applications. This makes it an excellent choice for enterprises with complex infrastructure setups. Flux CD, on the other hand, is better suited for smaller-scale deployments, as it focuses on simplicity and ease of use. It may not be as suitable for managing a large number of clusters and applications.

  3. User Interface: Rancher Fleet provides a web-based user interface (UI) that allows users to manage and monitor their deployments visually. This UI offers a more convenient and intuitive way to interact with the tool. Flux CD, on the other hand, does not have a native UI and instead relies on command-line interactions and configuration files. This makes Flux CD a better choice for users who prefer working with the command line or those who want more fine-grained control over their deployments.

  4. Integration and Ecosystem: Flux CD has deep integration with popular Git providers like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. It allows users to manage and track changes to their Kubernetes manifests directly from their code repositories. Rancher Fleet, on the other hand, provides a broader ecosystem and integrates with other Rancher tools, such as Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE) and Rancher Server. This integration allows users to have a seamless experience across different Rancher products.

  5. Support and Community: Flux CD has a significant community and is backed by prominent companies like GitHub and Weaveworks. It benefits from active community support and regular updates. Rancher Fleet enjoys the support of Rancher Labs, which provides commercial support and professional services, making it a good choice for users who value enterprise-level support and need assistance with complex deployments.

  6. Customization and Extensibility: Rancher Fleet offers more flexibility when it comes to customization and extensibility. It provides various configuration options and allows users to define customizations and overrides at the cluster level. Flux CD, on the other hand, has a more opinionated approach to deployment with fewer customization options. It focuses on simplicity and out-of-the-box functionality, making it easier for beginners but potentially limiting for users with specific customization requirements.

In Summary, Flux CD and Rancher Fleet have key differences in terms of installation, scalability, user interface, integration, support, and customization. Flux CD offers a simpler installation, better suitability for smaller-scale deployments, lack of a native UI, deep integration with Git providers, and a large community. Rancher Fleet excels in scalability, a web-based UI, integration with other Rancher tools, commercial support, and extensibility.

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Detailed Comparison

Flux CD
Flux CD
Rancher Fleet
Rancher Fleet

It is a tool that automatically ensures that the state of your Kubernetes cluster matches the configuration you’ve supplied in Git. It uses an operator in the cluster to trigger deployments inside Kubernetes, which means that you don’t need a separate continuous delivery tool.

It is a Kubernetes cluster fleet controller specifically designed to address the challenges of running thousands to millions of clusters across the world. While it's designed for massive scale the concepts still apply for even small deployments of less than 10 clusters. It is lightweight enough to run on the smallest of deployments too and even has merit in a single node cluster managing only itself.

Describe the entire desired state of your system in Git. This includes apps, configuration, dashboards, monitoring, and everything else; Use YAML to enforce conformance to the declared system. You don’t need to run kubectl because all changes go through Git. Use diffing tools to detect divergence between observed and desired state and receive notifications; Everything is controlled through pull requests, which means no learning curve for new developers. Just use your standard PR process. Your Git history provides a sequence of transactions, allowing you to recover system state from any snapshot. Fix a production issue via pull request rather than making changes to the running system
Kubernetes cluster fleet controller; Designed for massive scale; Lightweight; Ensure that deployments are consistents across clusters
Statistics
GitHub Stars
6.9K
GitHub Stars
1.6K
GitHub Forks
1.1K
GitHub Forks
248
Stacks
81
Stacks
13
Followers
76
Followers
72
Votes
1
Votes
4
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 1
    Open Source
Pros
  • 2
    UI Integration
  • 1
    Scalability
  • 1
    Enterprise support
Integrations
Git
Git
Kubernetes
Kubernetes
YAML
YAML
Kubernetes
Kubernetes

What are some alternatives to Flux CD, Rancher Fleet?

Kubernetes

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.

Rancher

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Docker Swarm

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Tutum

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Codefresh

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

CAST.AI

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

k3s

k3s

Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server.

Flocker

Flocker

Flocker is a data volume manager and multi-host Docker cluster management tool. With it you can control your data using the same tools you use for your stateless applications. This means that you can run your databases, queues and key-value stores in Docker and move them around as easily as the rest of your app.

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