Kubernetes Dashboard

A better way to manage Kubernetes resources.

What is the Kubernetes Dashboard?

Kubernetes Dashboard is a web-based user interface to visualize the Kubernetes cluster. It shows you the details of the Kubernetes cluster, which includes the nodes in the cluster, namespaces, volumes, cluster roles, job details, and much more. You can deploy a containerized application through the Kubernetes dashboard with just a few clicks and manage all the cluster resources with ease.

Prerequisite

You must have a running Kubernetes cluster before setting up a Kubernetes dashboard. Read this article to learn how to set up Kubernetes.

Deploy Kubernetes Dashboard

Run below kubectl command on the master node to deploy the Kubernetes dashboard.

geekflare@kubernetes-master:~$ sudo kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.0.0-beta8/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml
namespace/kubernetes-dashboard created
serviceaccount/kubernetes-dashboard created
service/kubernetes-dashboard created
secret/kubernetes-dashboard-certs created
secret/kubernetes-dashboard-csrf created
secret/kubernetes-dashboard-key-holder created
configmap/kubernetes-dashboard-settings created
role.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/kubernetes-dashboard created
clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/kubernetes-dashboard created
rolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/kubernetes-dashboard created
clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/kubernetes-dashboard created
deployment.apps/kubernetes-dashboard created
service/dashboard-metrics-scraper created
deployment.apps/dashboard-metrics-scraper created

You can see dashboard pods are in running state now.

geekflare@kubernetes-master:~$ kubectl get pods --all-namespaces
NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
kube-system coredns-6955765f44-hwxdq 1/1 Running 0 6m35s
kube-system coredns-6955765f44-z2tdg 1/1 Running 0 6m35s
kube-system etcd-kubernetes-master 1/1 Running 0 6m45s
kube-system kube-apiserver-kubernetes-master 1/1 Running 0 6m45s
kube-system kube-controller-manager-kubernetes-master 1/1 Running 0 6m45s
kube-system kube-proxy-4b5jz 1/1 Running 0 6m35s
kube-system kube-proxy-v26wn 1/1 Running 0 26s
kube-system kube-scheduler-kubernetes-master 1/1 Running 0 6m45s
kubernetes-dashboard dashboard-metrics-scraper-76585494d8-czrtf 1/1 Running 0 2m37s
kubernetes-dashboard kubernetes-dashboard-5996555fd8-5mhxm 1/1 Running 0 2m37s

Access Kubernetes Dashboard

Run the below command to access Kubernetes dashboard at 192.168.0.107:8001 (change this to your IP)

geekflare@kubernetes-master:~$ kubectl proxy --port=8001 --address='192.168.0.107' --accept-hosts="^*$"
Starting to serve on 192.168.0.107:8001

Open the browser and go to the link below to login to the Kubernetes dashboard.

These are the two ways to login to Kubernetes Dashboard.

• Token
• kubeconfig

Generate Token to log in

• In the default namespace, create a service account.

geekflare@kubernetes-master:~$ kubectl create serviceaccount geekflare -n default
serviceaccount/geekflare created

• Create cluster binding rules for the newly created service account.

geekflare@kubernetes-master:~$ kubectl create clusterrolebinding geekflare-admin -n default --clusterrole=cluster-admin --serviceaccount=default:geekflare
clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/geekflare-admin created

• Run the kubectl command below to generate the token

geekflare@kubernetes-master:~$ kubectl get secret $(kubectl get serviceaccount geekflare -o jsonpath="{.secrets[0].name}") -o jsonpath="{.data.token}" | base64 --decode
eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6ImZxeUhfd0ROdE1qOWxqcFhQODR2NDVFaTJSQU85VHhyUnRneVRCZzBJVUkifQ.eyJpc3MiOiJrdWJlcm5ldGVzL3NlcnZpY2VhY2NvdW50Iiwia3ViZXJuZXRlcy5pby9zZXJ2aWNlYWNjb3VudC9uYW1lc3BhY2UiOiJkZWZhdWx0Iiwia3ViZXJuZXRlcy5pby9zZXJ2aWNlYWNjb3VudC9zZWNyZXQubmFtZSI6ImRhc2hib2FyZC10b2tlbi02ajhyNSIsImt1YmVybmV0ZXMuaW8vc2VydmljZWFjY291bnQvc2VydmljZS1hY2NvdW50Lm5hbWUiOiJkYXNoYm9hcmQiLCJrdWJlcm5ldGVzLmlvL3NlcnZpY2VhY2NvdW50L3NlcnZpY2UtYWNjb3VudC51aWQiOiJhNzBiNzZmZC1iMzI1LTRiNTUtYTc5YS0wZDRmNjAwNTI4MTAiLCJzdWIiOiJzeXN0ZW06c2VydmljZWFjY291bnQ6ZGVmYXVsdDpkYXNoYm9hcmQifQ.KtOGDMp_llQ1_V5OpJGsXzPlDkKw2y4y9TowlTH7WnU84LZHZLPar65cVOh20kPkRGJZmKkmkjuXKc1VcmBJQQCLSJgXb3G-7-OSC8LvC-3ROA0cjsGqDuFtXvA4bjlRJ1wGmAmaCgO8oeXVHqciEjw9wcH5tPRKGlvXAESmDlxH_rVu_TJpqSAb2pp3V0_fpD7VxU34mSfLEoMImixHbCILt0YGS9VyEJUgzcOdfj2ZvECOEbD_Y5LPLcTe0fkBJvwIiIgwxCttFRXktdExo7Z17WlekZJLcCBzRWTfrWte8Ugf6vfpN7IfJVWqQLpDZ9XtgHavpXXeJbp2FljIFw

You can use the generated token (as shown above) to login to the dashboard.

kubeconfig

The other way to login is by using the Kubernetes configuration file.

• Select the option Kubeconfig and click on “Choose Kubeconfig file.”

• Use the admin.conf, file present at $HOME/.kube/config/ path and login to the dashboard successfully

Dashboard Interface

This is how the dashboard interface will look like.

You see the details of the Nodes, Persistent Volumes, Namespaces, Cluster Roles running in the Kubernetes cluster.

Using the dashboard, you can write YAML code in the editor to add new resources to the cluster.

Once the cluster has multiple jobs running, you will get more visualization options. It will tell you which jobs failed or passed. If there is an issue with the cluster, you can see it in the dashboard easily.