Deploy the latest Kubernetes dashboard

Once you’ve set up your Kubernetes cluster or if you already had one running, we can get started.

The first thing to know about the web UI is that it can only be accessed using the localhost address on the machine it runs on. This means we need to have an SSH tunnel to the server. For most OS, you can create an SSH tunnel using this command. Replace the and with the relevant details to your Kubernetes cluster.

ssh -L localhost:8001:127.0.0.1:8001 <user>@<master_public_IP>

After you’ve logged in, you can deploy the dashboard itself with the following single command.

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.0.0/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml

If your cluster is working correctly, you should see an output confirming the creation of a bunch of Kubernetes components like in the example below.

Output

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

Afterward, you should have two new pods running on your cluster.

kubectl get pods -A

Output

...
kubernetes-dashboard   dashboard-metrics-scraper-78ujd94gf7-ff6h8   1/1     Running   0          30m
kubernetes-dashboard   kubernetes-dashboard-g6hujkirf7-df65g        1/1     Running   0          30m

You can then continue ahead with creating the required user accounts.

Creating Admin user

The Kubernetes dashboard supports a few ways to manage access control. In this example, we’ll be creating an admin user account with full privileges to modify the cluster and use tokens.

Start by making a new directory for the dashboard configuration files.

mkdir ~/dashboard && cd ~/dashboard

Create the following configuration and save it as a dashboard-admin.yaml file. Note that indentation matters in the YAML files which should use two spaces in a regular text editor.

vim dashboard-admin.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

Once set, save the file and exit the editor.

Then deploy the admin user role with the next command.

kubectl apply -f dashboard-admin.yaml

You should see a service account and a cluster role binding created.

Output

serviceaccount/admin-user created
clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/admin-user created

Using this method doesn’t require setting up or memorising passwords, instead, accessing the dashboard will require a token.

Get the admin token using the command below.

kubectl get secret -n kubernetes-dashboard $(kubectl get serviceaccount admin-user -n kubernetes-dashboard -o jsonpath="{.secrets[0].name}") -o jsonpath="{.data.token}" | base64 --decode

You’ll then see an output of a long string of seemingly random characters like in the example below.

Output

eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6Ilk2eEd2QjJMVkhIRWNfN2xTMlA5N2RNVlR5N0o1REFET0dp dkRmel90aWMifQ.eyJpc3MiOiJrdWJlcm5ldGVzL3NlcnZpY2VhY2NvdW50Iiwia3ViZXJuZXRlc y5pby9zZXJ2aWNlYWNjb3VudC9uYW1lc3BhY2UiOiJrdWJlcm5ldGVzLWRhc2hib2FyZCIsImt1Y mVybmV0ZXMuaW8vc2VydmljZWFjY291bnQvc2VjcmV0Lm5hbWUiOiJhZG1pbi11c2VyLXRva2VuL XEyZGJzIiwia3ViZXJuZXRlcy5pby9zZXJ2aWNlYWNjb3VudC9zZXJ2aWNlLWFjY291bnQubmFtZ SI6ImFkbWluLXVzZXIiLCJrdWJlcm5ldGVzLmlvL3NlcnZpY2VhY2NvdW50L3NlcnZpY2UtYWNjb 3VudC51aWQiOiI1ODI5OTUxMS1hN2ZlLTQzZTQtODk3MC0yMjllOTM1YmExNDkiLCJzdWIiOiJze XN0ZW06c2VydmljZWFjY291bnQ6a3ViZXJuZXRlcy1kYXNoYm9hcmQ6YWRtaW4tdXNlciJ9.GcUs MMx4GnSV1hxQv01zX1nxXMZdKO7tU2OCu0TbJpPhJ9NhEidttOw5ENRosx7EqiffD3zdLDptS22F gnDqRDW8OIpVZH2oQbR153EyP_l7ct9_kQVv1vFCL3fAmdrUwY5p1-YMC41OUYORy1JPo5wkpXrW OytnsfWUbZBF475Wd3Gq3WdBHMTY4w3FarlJsvk76WgalnCtec4AVsEGxM0hS0LgQ-cGug7iGbmf cY7odZDaz5lmxAflpE5S4m-AwsTvT42ENh_bq8PS7FsMd8mK9nELyQu_a-yocYUggju_m-BxLjgc 2cLh5WzVbTH_ztW7COlKWvSVg7yhjikrew

The token is created each time the dashboard is deployed and is required to log into the dashboard. Note that the token will change if the dashboard is stopped and redeployed.

Creating Read-Only user

If you wish to provide access to your Kubernetes dashboard, for example, for demonstrative purposes, you can create a read-only view for the cluster.

Similarly to the admin account, save the following configuration in dashboard-read-only.yaml

vim dashboard-read-only.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: read-only-user
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  annotations:
    rbac.authorization.kubernetes.io/autoupdate: "true"
  labels:
  name: read-only-clusterrole
  namespace: default
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources: ["*"]
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - extensions
  resources: ["*"]
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
- apiGroups:
  - apps
  resources: ["*"]
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: read-only-binding
roleRef:
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: read-only-clusterrole
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: read-only-user
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard

Once set, save the file and exit the editor.

Then deploy the read-only user account with the command below.

kubectl apply -f dashboard-read-only.yaml

To allow users to log in via the read-only account, you’ll need to provide a token that can be fetched using the next command.

kubectl get secret -n kubernetes-dashboard $(kubectl get serviceaccount read-only-user -n kubernetes-dashboard -o jsonpath="{.secrets[0].name}") -o jsonpath="{.data.token}" | base64 --decode

The toke will be a long series of characters and unique to the dashboard currently running.

Accessing the dashboard

We’ve now deployed the dashboard and created user accounts for it. Next, we can get started managing the Kubernetes cluster itself.

However, before we can log in to the dashboard, it needs to be made available by creating a proxy service on the localhost. Run the next command on your Kubernetes cluster.

kubectl proxy

This will start the server at 127.0.0.1:8001 as shown by the output.

Output

Starting to serve on 127.0.0.1:8001

Now, assuming that we have already established an SSH tunnel binding to the localhost port 8001 at both ends, open a browser to the link below.

Link

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

If everything is running correctly, you should see the dashboard login window.

Select the token authentication method and copy your admin token into the field below. Then click the Sign in button.

You will then be greeted by the overview of your Kubernetes cluster.

While signed in as an admin, you can deploy new pods and services quickly and easily by clicking the plus icon at the top right corner of the dashboard.

Then either copy in any configuration file you wish, select the file directly from your machine, or create a new configuration from a form.