RKE2 was built from the beginning with the unique needs of the U.S. Government in mind. Its goal was straightforward: reduce the amount of work required to deploy a secure, compliant Kubernetes platform and help mission teams move from infrastructure to capability faster.
By incorporating many of the security controls required in government environments directly into the distribution, RKE2 significantly reduced the configuration burden placed on administrators. Instead of starting with a general-purpose Kubernetes distribution and hardening it from the ground up, teams could begin with a purpose-built foundation and focus on the smaller set of environment-specific decisions required for their deployment.
We wanted to take that approach further.
Today, we are announcing RKE2 Government, an RGS-provided build of RKE2 designed to eliminate even more of the work required to deploy Kubernetes into highly regulated environments available exclusively to our customers.
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RKE2 Government ships in a hardened, STIG-compliant configuration out of the box. Rather than providing a hardened baseline that administrators must finish configuring, applies the required Kubernetes security configuration as part of the product itself. The result is a platform that is ready for mission workloads without requiring teams to independently interpret, apply, and maintain hundreds of individual hardening settings.
That includes:
- Kubernetes components configured for STIG compliance by default. Required configuration for the Kubernetes control plane and supporting components is applied automatically, with no additional hardening configuration required from the user.
- Integrated SELinux enablement. SELinux policies are installed and applied as part of the normal installation process. There are no separate policy packages or additional artifacts for administrators to locate, install, or maintain.
- FIPS 140-3 certified, verified, and validated. Provides the cryptographic foundation required for deployments operating under modern federal security requirements.
- Rancher compatibility built in. Is designed and tested for both deploying Rancher and operating as a downstream cluster managed by Rancher. Required Pod Security Admission configuration and other compatibility considerations are handled as part of the platform, rather than becoming additional work for administrators.
The objective is simple: make the secure path the default path.
Government teams should not have to become experts in every individual Kubernetes hardening requirement before they can deploy a compliant cluster. They shouldn't have to maintain separate collections of SELinux policies, security configurations, installation guidance, and exceptions just to keep the platform operational.
With RKE2 Government, those decisions are made, tested, and maintained as part of the product.
That means fewer configuration steps, fewer opportunities for configuration drift, and less time spent turning a Kubernetes cluster into something that is ready for the mission.
The goal is not simply to make compliance easier. It is to remove infrastructure work that does not differentiate the mission, so teams can spend more of their time on the capabilities that do.
Get Started Today
Accelerate your mission with a secure, compliant Kubernetes foundation. Contact Rancher Government Solutions to learn how RKE2 Government can transform your deployment strategy.
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