Rancher OS is smaller than many traditional Linux operating system distributions as it uses only the necessary libraries and services to deploy and scale containers. Run by Rancher Labs, all processes in this OS are container managed by Docker. This open source OS includes system services such as udev and syslog. Removal of unnecessary libraries and services reduces requirements for security patches and other maintenance. Docker allows users to package all necessary libraries into their containers.

For information on running the Rancher server on Rancher OS visit the following link:
https://rancher.com/docs/rancher/v1.6/en/installing-rancher/installing-server/