Setting Up a Kubernetes Dashboard on a Local Kind Cluster

 

Setting Up a Kubernetes Dashboard on a Local Kind Cluster

Ever wanted to visualize your Kubernetes cluster but found the command-line a bit tedious? The Kubernetes Dashboard offers a slick, web-based UI to manage your applications, monitor resource usage, and troubleshoot issues. In this blog post, we'll walk you through the process of setting up the Kubernetes Dashboard on a local Kind cluster and accessing it from your browser.

Prerequisites: What You'll Need

Before we start, make sure you have the following installed on your machine:

1. Docker: Kind uses Docker to run the Kubernetes cluster.

2. Kind: The kind CLI tool for creating and managing your cluster.

3. kubectl: The command-line tool for interacting with your cluster.

4. Helm: A package manager for Kubernetes, which is the easiest way to install the Dashboard.

If you don't have a Kind cluster running, you can create one with a simple command: kind create cluster.

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Step 1: Install the Kubernetes Dashboard with Helm

Installing the Dashboard with Helm is a breeze. It handles all the necessary components for you.

First, add the Kubernetes Dashboard Helm repository:

Bash

helm repo add kubernetes-dashboard https://kubernetes.github.io/dashboard/

Next, update your Helm repositories to ensure you have the latest charts:

Bash

helm repo update

Now, install the Dashboard into the kubernetes-dashboard namespace. We'll add the --create-namespace flag to have Helm handle that for us.

Bash

helm install kubernetes-dashboard kubernetes-dashboard/kubernetes-dashboard --create-namespace --namespace kubernetes-dashboard

Wait a few moments for the installation to complete. You can check the status by running:

Bash

kubectl get pods --namespace kubernetes-dashboard

You should see a pod named kubernetes-dashboard-xxx in a Running state.

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Step 2: Create a User and Get an Authentication Token

For security, the Dashboard doesn't allow anonymous access. You need to create a ServiceAccount and a ClusterRoleBinding to grant it administrative permissions.

First, save the following YAML content to a file named dashboard-adminuser.yaml.

YAML

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: admin-user
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: admin-user
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: cluster-admin
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: admin-user
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard

Apply this file to your cluster using kubectl:

Bash

kubectl apply -f dashboard-adminuser.yaml

Now, let's get the authentication token for this new user. For Kubernetes versions 1.24 and newer, the easiest way to do this is with the kubectl create token command.

Bash

kubectl create token admin-user -n kubernetes-dashboard

Copy the long string of characters that's output to your terminal. This is the token you'll use to log in.

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Step 3: Access the Dashboard

To access the Dashboard from your local machine, we'll use kubectl to create a secure proxy. This command forwards requests from your local machine to the Kubernetes API server, bypassing any network firewalls or complex configurations.

Open a new terminal window and run the proxy command. Keep this terminal open!

Bash

kubectl proxy

You'll see a message confirming the proxy is running, typically on http://127.0.0.1:8001.

Finally, open your web browser and navigate to the following URL:

http://localhost:8001/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/https:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/

You'll be greeted by the Dashboard login screen. Select the Token option, paste the token you copied earlier, and click Sign In.

Congratulations! You now have a working Kubernetes Dashboard on your local Kind cluster. You can now use this powerful UI to monitor your pods, view logs, and manage your applications directly from your browser.