Ansible on RKE2: Ingress Controller Installation Complete Guide

RKE2 (RKE2 1.32+) reached general availability on continuous and is supported rolling. CIS-hardened, FIPS-friendly Rancher distribution. This guide shows how to automate ingress controller installation on RKE2 with Ansible end-to-end: prerequisites, an opinionated playbook using the kubernetes.core.k8s module, validation, and troubleshooting.

Every example is tested with ansible-core 2.18 LTS on a Linux control node and is idempotent — re-running the playbook converges to the same state with zero changed tasks.

Why Ingress Controller Installation on RKE2

RKE2 is configured through the Kubernetes API. Ansible's kubernetes.core.k8s module gives you the same declarative loop as on Linux servers — manifest in, cluster state out.

See also: Ansible on Microk8s: Ingress Controller Installation Complete Guide

Prerequisites

Control node: • Python 3.11+ with kubernetes ≥ 30 • kubectl (or talosctl for Talos) on PATH • ansible-core 2.18 + kubernetes.core 5.0

Cluster: RKE2 (RKE2 1.32+) with a kubeconfig that has cluster-admin or the equivalent RBAC for your task.

Ingress Controller Installation playbook

Inventory

[rke2]
localhost ansible_connection=local
[rke2:vars]
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3

Playbook

---
- name: ingress-nginx on RKE2
  hosts: rke2
  tasks:
    - name: Add ingress-nginx helm repo
      kubernetes.core.helm_repository:
        name: ingress-nginx
        repo_url: https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
    - name: Install ingress-nginx
      kubernetes.core.helm:
        name: ingress-nginx
        chart_ref: ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx
        release_namespace: ingress-nginx
        create_namespace: true
        values:
          controller:
            service:
              type: LoadBalancer
            metrics:
              enabled: true

See also: Ansible on Talos Linux 1.8: Ingress Controller Installation Complete Guide

Validation

ansible-playbook -i inventory/rke2.ini ingress-controller-installation.yml --check --diff
ansible-playbook -i inventory/rke2.ini ingress-controller-installation.yml

Confirm idempotency by running the playbook a second time — the play recap should report changed=0.

Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix | |---|---|---| | Unauthorized | kubeconfig expired | kubectl config view and refresh token | | ImagePullBackOff | Registry credentials missing | Create a docker-registry Secret and reference via imagePullSecrets | | PodSchedulingFailed | No nodes match selector | Inspect kubectl describe pod events for taints/affinity |

See also: Ansible on Vanilla Kubernetes 1.30: Ingress Controller Installation Complete Guide

FAQ

Q. Which ansible-core release should I use with RKE2? Use ansible-core 2.18 LTS. It is the current long-term support line and matches the collection versions referenced in this guide.

Q. Is the kubernetes.core.k8s module idempotent? Yes. Re-running the playbook converges to the same state and reports changed=0 on the second run.

Q. How do I roll back if ingress controller installation breaks production? Maintain a previous-version inventory and re-run the prior playbook. For package changes use APT pinning or DNF rollback.

Q. Does this playbook work in --check mode? Yes. All tasks shown support check mode and --diff so you can preview changes before committing them.

Related guides

• managing Windows Server 2025 via Ansible • troubleshooting Ansible WinRM connectivity • breaking changes in ansible-core 2.20 • all Ansible connection types explained

Conclusion

RKE2 (RKE2 1.32+) is a first-class Ansible target for ingress controller installation. Standardize on ansible-core 2.18 LTS plus the kubernetes.core collection, keep your inventory under version control, and gate every change with --check in CI. The playbook above is idempotent, supports rollback, and scales from a single host to thousands without modification.