Rancher Manager

Deploy Kubernetes manifests and Helm charts from Jenkins through the Rancher Manager 2.x API — one Bearer token, Freestyle or Pipeline, clear build summaries.

Who it’s for: platform and CI engineers who already run Rancher Manager for day-2 K8s and want Jenkins jobs to apply YAML or install/upgrade Helm without driving the Rancher UI. This is not the legacy Rancher plugin (Cattle 1.x stacks).

Plugin id: rancher-manager · Artifact: rancher-manager · JCasC / System symbol: rancherManager

Configure Rancher once under Manage Jenkins → System, then add build steps that talk to the Rancher API on the controller (Jenkins proxy + credentials). Each step can Inherit that connection or use a Manual URL + token for a specific job.

Typical flows:

• Apply a Kubernetes manifest from Git or pasted YAML and wait until workloads are Ready
• Install or upgrade a Helm chart from an existing ClusterRepo into a Rancher project
• Run Validate only to preflight the connection without mutating Rancher

Build logs stay scannable: short INFO phases and a Summary with outcome=created|updated|…. Tokens and YAML bodies are never dumped to the console.

• System global config — Rancher URL + Secret text API token (rancherManager); connectivity is checked on build preflight (GET /v3/clusters/{id}; no System Test connection button)
• Inherit / Manual Rancher connection on every step (default Inherit)
• Rancher Manifest Deployment (rancherManifest) — YAML from Git or manual; POST …?action=apply; poll Deployment/StatefulSet/DaemonSet/Job until Ready (waitTimeoutSeconds, default 300). ConfigMap-only succeeds after apply. Namespace comes from the YAML; the step does not create namespaces
• Rancher Helm Deployment (rancherHelm) — chart repo http(s):// or oci:// resolved to an existing ClusterRepo (index refresh only if the chart is missing, then one retry). Project + namespace; optional ensure namespace in that project. After catalog 201, poll the Helm operation then the app. Failed Helm is never SUCCESS. Values none / YAML / Git file
• Cluster-scoped API keys — preflight uses cluster GET only (not /v3/users?me=true)
• validateOnly — field checks + preflight; no apply / catalog mutate

1. In Rancher Manager: Avatar → Account & API Keys — create a key. Copy the Bearer Token (token-…:…), not Access Key alone. Leave Scope empty (No Scope) unless the key is only for one cluster.
2. In Jenkins: Manage Jenkins → Credentials → Secret text (e.g. ID rancher-api-token). Paste the Bearer Token value only (no Bearer prefix).
3. Manage Jenkins → System → Rancher Manager:
   • Display name: e.g. Production Rancher
   • Rancher URL: https://rancher.example
   • API token credentials: select the Secret text credential
4. Add a Freestyle build step or Pipeline — see examples/PipelineSyntax.rancherManifest.groovy and examples/PipelineSyntax.rancherHelm.groovy.

pipeline {
    agent none
    stages {
        stage('Deploy') {
            steps {
                rancherManifest(
                    clusterId: 'local',
                    manifestSource: 'yaml',
                    manifestYaml: '''
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: demo
'''
                )
            }
        }
    }
}

• Jenkins 2.541.3+
• Rancher Manager 2.8+ (Steve catalog; not Rancher 1.x Cattle). OCI ClusterRepo needs 2.9+
• JDK truststore must trust the Rancher TLS certificate — no skip-SSL

Report vulnerabilities through the Jenkins security process — see SECURITY.md.

MIT