Rancher Labs has developed an operating system for its recently launched edge-specific k3s Kubernetes distribution designed for resource-constrained environments and easier management when deployed within the k3s environment.

Sheng Liang, CEO and co-founder of Rancher Labs, said the conveniently named k3OS uses the same declarative syntax as other Kubernetes resources. This allows a user to install and upgrade the k3s platform and the k3OS at the same time.

Users can also use the k3OS platform to model infrastructure-as-a-code, which allows for repeatable cluster deployments and should make the k3s clusters more secure when running in isolated environments. It also has a reduced attack surface that further bolsters its security posture.

The OS is built on the Ubuntu kernel, which Liang said allows it to leverage the Canonical Ubuntu server kernel team for updates and device support. It will initially ship with support for x86_64 and ARM64 architectures, can boot in 10 seconds, and is immediately available when partnered with k3s. Initial shipments are set for later this year.

“The k3s OS is designed to work only within the k3s platform," though Liang noted that “you could probably twist it to work outside, but it wouldn’t really add any value.”

The OS announcement comes just two months after Rancher Labs released the k3s platform. K3s is basically a slimmer version of Kubernetes, which is often referred to as “k8s.” That slimness is important because edge locations are more resource constrained compared with data center or network core locations.

Shannon Williams, co-founder and vice president of sales at Rancher Labs, said the vendor pulled “alpha-level features that were still in development and also deprecated features” that were no longer needed or supported. This allowed the vendor to push out a platform that consumes just 40 megabytes of space and can run on x86_64, Armv8-A, and Armv7-A architectures.

“We didn’t completely change how Kubernetes works,” Williams said. “We removed drivers that were not essential for edge deployments, but still allow a customer to pull down those drivers if they need them.”

Liang said that Rancher wanted to emphasize that k3s was not dependent on a specific OS. “If we released them together people might think that they were required for each other,” Liang explained. He added that something like CentOS or Ubuntu could also work on the k3s platform, but that by providing its own OS, Rancher made it easier to manage. “Those are also more full-scale OS' so we would have to likely remove things from them to get them small enough,” Liang said.

As for k3s, Liang said that Rancher has seen some uptake outside of the edge ecosystem that it was initially targeted at. He said this has included in cloud environments, data centers, and the desktop for a developer environment.

“K3s’ sweet spot is at the edge and in bare metal environments,” Liang said. “And in those cases folks are just looking for something that is easy to deploy and manage in a basic environment.”