Section 3: Migrating Nodes to the New Cluster
This section covers the most critical phase of the migration: moving nodes from the k3s cluster to RKE2. Each node follows the same pattern: analyze workloads, create backups, drain, reinstall the OS, and join RKE2.
- Draining nodes from Cluster A and joining them to Cluster B as RKE2 control plane members
- Understanding etcd quorum and why 3 nodes is the HA threshold
- Verifying the completed control plane with failover testing
The section concludes with Cluster B (RKE2) running a fully operational 3-node high-availability control plane, while Cluster A (k3s) continues to serve traffic on its remaining node.
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This is the 3rd section of the guide Migrating from k3s to RKE2. Make sure you have completed the previous section before continuing here. The full list of lessons in the guide can be found in the overview.
Getting Started
To get started with the section, head over to the first lesson in this section to learn how to safely migrate nodes while maintaining service availability.
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