Differences Between Paralus and Rancher

Introduction

This document details the operational and functional differences between Rancher and Paralus. It is designed to assist users transitioning from Rancher to Paralus by explaining the changes and adaptations they might expect.

Please be aware, while Paralus is a replacement for certain features of Rancher like the centralized authentication and authorization, it is not a 1-to-1 replacement. Most of the functionality can be achieved using kubectl commands. If you have inputs or questions, we would love to hear from you.

User Interface and Interaction

Paralus provides a streamlined user interface centered around projects and clusters:

  • Projects in Paralus house multiple clusters, from which kubeconfig files can be directly downloaded for Kubernetes command-line tool (kubectl) access.

  • Unlike Rancher, Paralus does not currently support detailed views of pods or integrated Grafana and Prometheus dashboards for monitoring.

Cluster Management

Cluster management in Paralus differs notably from Rancher:

  • Clusters are organized under projects.

  • Health indicators in Paralus display as "healthy," contrasting with Rancher’s "active" status.

Limitations of Paralus

As a newly adopted Kubernetes cluster management tool, Paralus has several limitations:

  • The lack of a comprehensive dashboard means users cannot view nodes, workloads, apps, services, or storage directly in the UI.

  • To monitor pods and namespaces, users must resort to using kubectl commands.

  • Unlike Rancher, Paralus does not offer a search functionality within the platform.