I installed Rancher as outlined in their github Quick Start:

sudo docker run -d --restart=unless-stopped -p 80:80 -p 443:443 --privileged rancher/rancher

I then went ahead and tried to install Longhorn, however I'm unable to install it and keep getting this error.

helm upgrade --install=true --labels=catalog.cattle.io/cluster-repo-name=rancher-charts --namespace=longhorn-system --timeout=10m0s --values=/home/shell/helm/values-longhorn-crd-105.1.0-up1.7.2.yaml --version=105.1.0+up1.7.2 --wait=true longhorn-crd /home/shell/helm/longhorn-crd-105.1.0-up1.7.2.tgz
Release "longhorn-crd" does not exist. Installing it now.
NAME: longhorn-crd
LAST DEPLOYED: Tue Mar  4 00:18:14 2025
NAMESPACE: longhorn-system
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SUCCESS: helm upgrade --install=true --labels=catalog.cattle.io/cluster-repo-name=rancher-charts --namespace=longhorn-system --timeout=10m0s --values=/home/shell/helm/values-longhorn-crd-105.1.0-up1.7.2.yaml --version=105.1.0+up1.7.2 --wait=true longhorn-crd /home/shell/helm/longhorn-crd-105.1.0-up1.7.2.tgz
---------------------------------------------------------------------
helm upgrade --install=true --labels=catalog.cattle.io/cluster-repo-name=rancher-charts --namespace=longhorn-system --timeout=10m0s --values=/home/shell/helm/values-longhorn-105.1.0-up1.7.2.yaml --version=105.1.0+up1.7.2 --wait=true longhorn /home/shell/helm/longhorn-105.1.0-up1.7.2.tgz
Release "longhorn" does not exist. Installing it now.
Error: context deadline exceeded

I cannot run the longhorn CLI checker that longhorn has either since the instructions does not bind the /boot/config/ to the docker container so I keep getting this error:

> ./longhornctl check preflight
INFO[2025-03-04T00:39:42Z] Initializing preflight checker               
INFO[2025-03-04T00:39:42Z] Cleaning up preflight checker                
INFO[2025-03-04T00:39:42Z] Running preflight checker                    
ERRO[2025-03-04T00:40:09Z] Failed to run preflight checker: failed DaemonSet condition check: pod container is in crash loop. View the logs using "kubectl -n default logs longhorn-preflight-checker-gldg9 -c init-longhornctl"

I have already satisfied all the requirements mentioned in Longhorn prerequisites, please note that it says Rancher already has Mount Propagation enabled by default.

Versions:

Rancher: 2.10.2
Kubernetes: v1.31.1+k3s1

I installed Rancher as outlined in their github Quick Start:

sudo docker run -d --restart=unless-stopped -p 80:80 -p 443:443 --privileged rancher/rancher

I then went ahead and tried to install Longhorn, however I'm unable to install it and keep getting this error.

helm upgrade --install=true --labels=catalog.cattle.io/cluster-repo-name=rancher-charts --namespace=longhorn-system --timeout=10m0s --values=/home/shell/helm/values-longhorn-crd-105.1.0-up1.7.2.yaml --version=105.1.0+up1.7.2 --wait=true longhorn-crd /home/shell/helm/longhorn-crd-105.1.0-up1.7.2.tgz
Release "longhorn-crd" does not exist. Installing it now.
NAME: longhorn-crd
LAST DEPLOYED: Tue Mar  4 00:18:14 2025
NAMESPACE: longhorn-system
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SUCCESS: helm upgrade --install=true --labels=catalog.cattle.io/cluster-repo-name=rancher-charts --namespace=longhorn-system --timeout=10m0s --values=/home/shell/helm/values-longhorn-crd-105.1.0-up1.7.2.yaml --version=105.1.0+up1.7.2 --wait=true longhorn-crd /home/shell/helm/longhorn-crd-105.1.0-up1.7.2.tgz
---------------------------------------------------------------------
helm upgrade --install=true --labels=catalog.cattle.io/cluster-repo-name=rancher-charts --namespace=longhorn-system --timeout=10m0s --values=/home/shell/helm/values-longhorn-105.1.0-up1.7.2.yaml --version=105.1.0+up1.7.2 --wait=true longhorn /home/shell/helm/longhorn-105.1.0-up1.7.2.tgz
Release "longhorn" does not exist. Installing it now.
Error: context deadline exceeded

I cannot run the longhorn CLI checker that longhorn has either since the instructions does not bind the /boot/config/ to the docker container so I keep getting this error:

> ./longhornctl check preflight
INFO[2025-03-04T00:39:42Z] Initializing preflight checker               
INFO[2025-03-04T00:39:42Z] Cleaning up preflight checker                
INFO[2025-03-04T00:39:42Z] Running preflight checker                    
ERRO[2025-03-04T00:40:09Z] Failed to run preflight checker: failed DaemonSet condition check: pod container is in crash loop. View the logs using "kubectl -n default logs longhorn-preflight-checker-gldg9 -c init-longhornctl"

I have already satisfied all the requirements mentioned in Longhorn prerequisites, please note that it says Rancher already has Mount Propagation enabled by default.

Versions:

Rancher: 2.10.2
Kubernetes: v1.31.1+k3s1

• docker
• kubernetes
• rancher
• longhorn

Share Improve this question Follow asked Mar 4 at 0:45 rrlamichhanerrlamichhane 1,70522 gold badges2222 silver badges3939 bronze badges 1

• check in which namespace you want to install longhorn. – MikiBelavista Commented Mar 4 at 5:55

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2 Answers 2

Sorted by: Reset to default 0

Try

helm repo add longhorn https://charts.longhorn.io
helm repo update

then

kubectl create namespace longhorn-system
helm install longhorn longhorn/longhorn --namespace longhorn-system

Verify

kubectl -n longhorn-system get pod

This is kind of embarrassing but apparently I failed to read the documentation properly. The issue was that rancher is for testing/development purposes only in docker container mode. Once I installed a local k3s cluster and added rancher on top of that, I was able to install longhorn easily as specified in the docs.

1. Install k3s
   • https://docs.k3s.io/quick-start#install-script
2. Install rancher
   • https://ranchermanager.docs.rancher/getting-started/installation-and-upgrade/install-upgrade-on-a-kubernetes-cluster
3. Install longhorn (make sure you have met the pre-requisites)
   • https://longhorn.io/docs/1.8.0/deploy/install/install-with-rancher/

Here's the note on docker installation:

• https://ranchermanager.docs.rancher/getting-started/installation-and-upgrade/other-installation-methods
  • The Docker installation is for development and testing environments only.