Features

This section describes features and feature stages in Rancher Turtles.

List of Features

Feature Helm Feature Name Sub-Feature Default Stage

Day 2 Operations

day2operations

etcdBackupRestore

disabled

alpha

Add-on Provider for Fleet

None

None

enabled

GA

Agent TLS Mode

agent-tls-mode

None

enabled

beta

Cluster Class Operations

clusterclass-operations

None

disabled

alpha

Day 2 Operations

This feature gate is used to enable or disable all subfeatures that are typically used for the ongoing management and maintenance of your Kubernetes clusters, after they have been provisioned. Currently, there is a single subfeature available for RKE2 clusters that allows for etcd snapshots to be created and restored in downstream clusters, from the management cluster. In order to enable this subfeature, you need to enable both the day2operations and the etcdBackupRestore feature gates by setting the relevant values of the Turtles Helm chart. Note that this feature is currently in alpha stage with no long-term support.

Add-on Provider for Fleet

This feature installs Cluster API Add-on Provider for Fleet (CAAPF) to provide integration with Fleet and enable the easy deployment of applications to CAPI provisioned clusters. CAAPF automatically installs Fleet in the management cluster and registers newly provisioned CAPI clusters with Fleet, so that applications can be deployed to these clusters via GitOps, Bundle or HelmApp resources. CAAPF also includes support for grouping CAPI clusters that reference the same ClusterClass through Fleet’s ClusterGroup, essentially simplifying application deployments to large groups of clusters. This feature is in GA stage and enabled by default.

Agent TLS Mode

This feature gate is used to instruct Turtles on whether it should follow Rancher’s agent-tls-mode setting, when retrieving cluster registration manifests for importing clusters. When enabled, Turtles will lookup the value of Rancher’s agent-tls-mode setting to determine whether it has been set to system-store or strict. If set to system-store, Turtles will trust any certificate generated by a public Certificate Authority contained in the operating system’s trust store, including those signed by authorities such as Let’s Encrypt. If set to strict, Turtles will only trust certificates generated by the Certificate Authority contained in Rancher’s cacerts setting. When this setting is disabled, Turtles will fallback to work in system-store mode. This feature is in beta stage and enabled by default.

Cluster Class Operations

This feature gate is used to enable operations against CAPI clusters that use the ClusterClass feature. As CAPI clusters evolve, there is often a need to transition them from one ClusterClass to another, an operation known as rebasing. Turtles includes experimental support for rebasing which can be tested by enabling this feature gate. Note that this feature is currently in alpha stage with no long-term support.

Feature Stages

Rancher Turtles follows the Kubernetes feature stages process. A feature can be in one of the following stages: Alpha, Beta, or General Availability (GA).

Alpha Stage

  • Disabled by default.

  • May be buggy, with no long-term support.

  • API may change without notice.

  • Recommended only for short-lived testing clusters.

Beta Stage

  • Always enabled by default.

  • Well-tested and considered safe.

  • Support is stable, but schema may change in future releases.

  • Recommended for non-business-critical uses due to potential incompatible changes.

Please provide feedback on Alpha and Beta features!

General Availability (GA) Stage

  • Always enabled, cannot be disabled.

  • No feature gate needed.

  • Stable, with long-term support in future releases.