Install the Kubernetes Dashboard

You can optionally use the Kubernetes Dashboard web interface to perform cluster management tasks.

About this task

Kubernetes Dashboard allows you to perform common cluster management tasks such as deployment, resource allocation, real-time and historic status review, and troubleshooting.

Prerequisites

You must have cluster-admin RBAC privileges to install Kubernetes Dashboard.

Procedure

1. Create a namespace for the Kubernetes Dashboard.

   ~(keystone_admin)]$ kubectl create namespace kubernetes-dashboard
   

2. Create a certificate for use by the Kubernetes Dashboard.

   Note

   This example uses a self-signed certificate. In a production deployment, the use of a using a certificate signed by a trusted Certificate Authority is strongly recommended.

   1. Create a location to store the certificate.

      ~(keystone_admin)]$ cd /home/sysadmin
      ~(keystone_admin)]$ mkdir -p /home/sysadmin/kube/dashboard/certs
      

   2. Create the certificate.

      ~(keystone_admin)]$ openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /home/sysadmin/kube/dashboard/certs/dashboard.key -out /home/sysadmin/kube/dashboard/certs/dashboard.crt -subj "/CN=<FQDN>"
      

      where: <FQDN>

      The fully qualified domain name for the StarlingX cluster’s OAM floating IP.

   3. Create a kubernetes secret for holding the certificate and private key.

      ~(keystone)admin)]$ kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard create secret generic kubernetes-dashboard-certs --from-file=tls.crt=/home/sysadmin/kube/dashboard/certs/dashboard.crt --from-file=tls.key=/home/sysadmin/kube/dashboard/certs/dashboard.key
      

3. Configure the kubernetes-dashboard manifest:

   1. Download the recommended.yaml file.

      ~(keystone_admin)]$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.0.0/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml
      

   2. Edit the file.

      Comment out the auto-generate-certificates argument and add the tls-cert-file and tls-key-file arguments.

      The updates should look like:

      ...
      args:
          # - --auto-generate-certificates
          - --namespace=kubernetes-dashboard
          - --tls-cert-file=/tls.crt
          - --tls-key-file=/tls.key
      ...
      

4. Apply the kubernetes dashboard recommended.yaml manifest.

   ~(keystone_admin)]$ kubectl apply -f recommended.yaml
   

5. Patch the kubernetes dashboard service to type=NodePort and port=32000.

   ~(keystone_admin)]$ kubectl patch service kubernetes-dashboard -n kubernetes-dashboard -p '{"spec":{"type":"NodePort","ports":[{"port":443, "nodePort":32000}]}}'
   

6. Test the Kubernetes Dashboard deployment.

   The Kubernetes Dashboard is listening at port 32000 on the machine defined above for StarlingX cluster’s OAM floating IP.

   1. Access the dashboard at https://<fqdn>:32000

      Because the certificate created earlier in this procedure was not signed by a trusted CA, you will need to acknowledge an insecure connection from the browser.

   2. Select the Kubeconfig option for signing in to the Kubernetes Dashboard. Note that typically your kubeconfig file on a remote host is located at $HOME/.kube/config . You may have to copy it to somewhere more accessible.

   You are presented with the Kubernetes Dashboard for the current context (cluster, user and credentials) specified in the kubeconfig file.