Provide Option to run without extensions, without actually disabling them

[akhilesh-d]

Problem Description

I use rancher desktop as local k8s as well as docker (moby), Some time I want to run it only as docker and do not want it to start k8s server.

If I disable k8s today and on enabling I have to setup my cluster again.

I just want a feature to decide at run time whether to run rancher desktop as docker only or docker + k8s.

Beter, it allows to also enable to disable use of extensions ...

e.g. rdctl start -no-k8s -no-extensions > start as docker only

or e.g. rdctl start -no-extensions -> start as docker + k8s

Proposed Solution

implement option like following

rdctl start -no-k8s -no-extensions > start as docker only

rdctl start -no-extensions -> start as docker + k8s

Additional Information

No response

[mook-as]

rdctl start already has some options:

 rdctl start --help
Starts up Rancher Desktop with the specified settings.
If it's running, behaves the same as 'rdctl set ...'.

Usage:
  rdctl start [flags]

Flags:
…
      --container-engine.name string                                    set engine (allowed values: [containerd, docker, moby])
…
      --kubernetes.enabled                                              run Kubernetes
…

So rdctl start --kubernetes.enabled=false --container-engine.name=moby starts without Kubernetes; --kubernetes.enabled=true does it with.

I'll leave this open to handle extensions, as that's not available at the moment.

[jandubois]

If I disable k8s today and on enabling I have to setup my cluster again.

This sounds wrong. I've just tested it:

• Deploy a pod and a service
• Disable Kubernetes (VM restarts)
• Enable Kubernetes (VM restarts again)
• Pods and service are running again

I haven't tried this, but I would expect it to even work when you switch the container engine, but of course all images will have to be downloaded into the new image store.

But the Kubernetes resources are stored in a database that is retained, and the reconcilers will bring everything up to the previous state (that is the main thing that Kubernetes does: provide resilient setups).

The database will be deleted if you downgrade Kubernetes versions, and upgrades are not guaranteed to work, but at least Rancher Desktop will not delete the workloads.

Another thing you can do is take a snapshot of your setup, so you can restore to it at any time.

[akhilesh-d]

rdctl start already has some options:

 rdctl start --help
Starts up Rancher Desktop with the specified settings.
If it's running, behaves the same as 'rdctl set ...'.

Usage:
  rdctl start [flags]

Flags:
…
      --container-engine.name string                                    set engine (allowed values: [containerd, docker, moby])
…
      --kubernetes.enabled                                              run Kubernetes
…

So rdctl start --kubernetes.enabled=false --container-engine.name=moby starts without Kubernetes; --kubernetes.enabled=true does it with.

I'll leave this open to handle extensions, as that's not available at the moment.

Thanks, I tested above and works for my use cases. Please consider for enable disable/extension in similar ways.

[akhilesh-d]

If I disable k8s today and on enabling I have to setup my cluster again.

This sounds wrong. I've just tested it:

• Deploy a pod and a service
• Disable Kubernetes (VM restarts)
• Enable Kubernetes (VM restarts again)
• Pods and service are running again

I haven't tried this, but I would expect it to even work when you switch the container engine, but of course all images will have to be downloaded into the new image store.

But the Kubernetes resources are stored in a database that is retained, and the reconcilers will bring everything up to the previous state (that is the main thing that Kubernetes does: provide resilient setups).

The database will be deleted if you downgrade Kubernetes versions, and upgrades are not guaranteed to work, but at least Rancher Desktop will not delete the workloads.

Another thing you can do is take a snapshot of your setup, so you can restore to it at any time.

You are right, tested above, it did not require any extra work to re enable k8s, In past I may have some other unrelated issue.

[jandubois]

Thank you for confirming @akhilesh-d!

I've updated the title of the issue to match the one thing not currently supported: running without extensions, but without uninstalling them.

This will be a pretty low priority though; what is the benefit of disabling the extensions? And uninstalling/reinstalling is not that much of an issue (unless you use a lot of them) because uninstalling will still leave the images around, so reinstalling them just means loading them again.

So I'm not really convinced this feature is necessary.

[akhilesh-d]

Thank you for confirming @akhilesh-d!

I've updated the title of the issue to match the one thing not currently supported: running without extensions, but without uninstalling them.

This will be a pretty low priority though; what is the benefit of disabling the extensions? And uninstalling/reinstalling is not that much of an issue (unless you use a lot of them) because uninstalling will still leave the images around, so reinstalling them just means loading them again.

So I'm not really convinced this feature is necessary.

I agree with low priority because it's possible to get it done via two commands, it would help in laptop use cases, where resources are limited.

Reinstall / Uninstall is also ok if it's possible from single cmd line, is it possible to combine following (rdctl start + extension) in one cmd line?

rdctl start --kubernetes.enabled=false --container-engine.name=moby
rdctl extension uninstall

rdctl start --kubernetes.enabled=false --container-engine.name=moby
rdctl extension install

rdctl start --kubernetes.enabled=true
rdctl extension install

rdctl start --kubernetes.enabled=true
rdctl extension uninstall

[jandubois]

I've updated the title of the issue to match the one thing not currently supported: running without extensions, but without uninstalling them.

Somehow this either got lost, I was confused and didn't actually do it. Anyways, done now.

Reinstall / Uninstall is also ok if it's possible from single cmd line, is it possible to combine following (rdctl start + extension) in one cmd line?

No it is not, you would have to write a small shell script (or two).