Kubernetes Dashboard: Web-based UI to manage Kubernetes Cluster

Kubernetes Dashboard

Introduction

Kubernetes Dashboard is a web-based user interface that makes it easy to manage your Kubernetes clusters. It's like having a control panel for all your containerized applications, where you can deploy, scale, and monitor everything in a user-friendly environment.

Being web-based means that you can access the Kubernetes Dashboard from any device with an internet connection and a web browser. It's designed to be intuitive and easy to navigate, so you can quickly find what you're looking for and take action without a hassle.

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

The Kubernetes Dashboard not only makes it simple to manage your clusters but also offers monitoring and troubleshooting tools. With built-in graphs and logs, you can keep an eye on the health of your applications and quickly identify and resolve any issues that arise.

Installing Kubernetes Dashboard

To start using the Kubernetes Dashboard, you'll first need to install and configure it. This process involves deploying the Dashboard as a container in your Kubernetes cluster and setting up secure access to the interface. We'll walk you through these steps, making it a breeze to get up and running.

Download Deployment Manifest

The official deployment manifest is readily available for download, enabling us to swiftly set it up on our Kubernetes Cluster.

~$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.7.0/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml -o deployment.yaml

Install Kubernetes Dashboard

~$ kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

Verify Installation

~$ kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard get pods

NAME                            READY   STATUS
kubernetes-dashboard-xxx        1/1     Running

The Kubernetes Dashboard has been successfully deployed; however, we cannot access it until we create two additional resources: an Ingress and a Service Account.

Create Ingress

Before we proceed, we must enable the Ingress to generate an SSL Certificate using Let's Encrypt via Cert Manager. To learn how to do this, refer to the guide provided below.

How to get Free SSL Certificate for Kubernetes Cluster using Let’s Encrypt

And then we can create Ingress resources

Install Ingress to Kubernetes Cluster

~$ kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard apply -f ingress.yaml

Open your browser and navigate to https://kubernetes-dashboard.example.com, you will see login page of Kubernetes Dashboard

Login Page of Kubernetes Dashboard

At this point, we need to create a Service Account, obtain the token associated with it, and utilize this token for logging in to the Kubernetes Dashboard.

Create Service Account

The next step involves creating a Service Account and the associated secret. In the latest Kubernetes versions, a secret is not automatically created when you create a Service Account. Therefore, we need to explicitly create a secret resource.

Install it

~$ kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard apply -f admin-role.yaml

Get token for login

~$ kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard get secret admin-user-secret -o jsonpath="{.data.token}" | base64 -d

Simply copy the token and use it for logging in. Voilà! Now you have a sleek and user-friendly web-based application for managing your Kubernetes Cluster!

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