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Accessing the Cluster Dashboard

The Kubernetes Dashboard is a web-based user interface that provides a visual representation of a cluster's resources and enables easier management and monitoring. Here's an overview of the dashboard:

  • Features: The dashboard displays various cluster resources, such as pods, services, nodes, deployments, and more. It offers an interactive view of the cluster's current state.
  • Access Control: Access to the dashboard is subject to RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) policies. Users need appropriate permissions to view and modify resources.
  • Monitoring: While the dashboard provides essential monitoring, more comprehensive monitoring solutions like Prometheus and Grafana can be integrated for in-depth insights.

Details of services, pods, namespaces, controllers etc. for a Kubernetes cluster are available on the Kubernetes Dashboard UI. To access the dashboard, the kubeconfig manifest needs to be downloaded and used.

If not, navigate to the Access section of a cluster to first set up kubectl and kubeconfig.

Once done, a local proxy needs to be run using the command given below:

kubectl --kubeconfig /custom/path/kube.conf proxy

If everything is set up correctly, opening this URL in your browser (or using the OPEN DASHBOARD button in the Dashboard section of cluster details) - http://localhost:8001/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/https:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/ - should open the cluster dashboard.

note

Each Kubernetes cluster has its own dashboard.

Getting Token for Dashboard Login​

To login to the cluster dashboard, a token needs to be obtained which can be done using the following command on the CLI:

kubectl --kubeconfig /custom/path/kube.conf describe secret $(kubectl --kubeconfig /custom/path/kube.conf get secrets -n kubernetes-dashboard | grep kubernetes-dashboard-token | awk '{print $1}') -n kubernetes-dashboard
note

More information about accessing the Kubernetes Dashboard UI can be found on https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/access-application-cluster/web-ui-dashboard/#accessing-the-dashboard-ui