How to Install the Kubernetes Dashboard on OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes

The Kubernetes Dashboard is a general purpose, web-based UI for Kubernetes clusters. It allows users to manage and troubleshoot applications running in their cluster, as well as managing the cluster itself.

Before you begin

This tutorial assumes that you already have a working OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes cluster, and some basic knowledge of how to operate it. If you want to learn more about these topics, please check out the OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes Service Quickstart.

Note: This tutorial describes the most basic way of using the Dashboard with your OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes cluster. Please refer to the official docs for a deeper understanding, especially on subjects like access control, for more in-depth information.

Deploy the Dashboard in your cluster

Depending on the version of Kubernetes you are running, you have to choose the right Dashboard version to deploy in order to avoid incompatibilities.

For Kubernetes 1.15, choose version v2.0.0-beta4

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.0.0-beta4/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml

For Kubernetes 1.16, choose version v2.0.0-rc3

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.0.0-rc3/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml

For Kubernetes 1.17, choose version v2.0.0-rc7

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.0.0-rc7/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml

For Kubernetes 1.20, choose version v2.3.1

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.3.1/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml

It should display something like this:

$ kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.0.0-rc7/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

Create An Authentication Token (RBAC)

In order to access the Dashboard, you need to create a new user with the service account mechanism in Kubernetes. Grant this user admin permissions, and then log into the Dashboard using their bearer token. Let’s look at these steps in more detail.

Create Service Account

First, we will create a service account with the name admin-user in the kubernetes-dashboard namespace.

To do this, please copy the following YAML into a dashboard-service-account.yml file:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: admin-user
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard

You should then apply the file to add the service account to your cluster:

kubectl apply -f dashboard-service-account.yml

It should display something like this:

$ kubectl apply -f dashboard-service-account.yml
serviceaccount/admin-user created

Create a Role Binding

Using the cluster-admin role for your cluster, we will create a RoleBinding, binding the cluster to your ServiceAccount.

To do this, please copy the following YAML into a dashboard-cluster-role-binding.yml file:

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

You should then apply the file to add the RoleBinding to your cluster:

kubectl apply -f dashboard-cluster-role-binding.yml

It should display something like this:

$ kubectl apply -f dashboard-cluster-role-binding.yml
clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/admin-user created

Create a Secret Service Account Token

In Kubernetes v1.24.0 Secret API objects containing service account tokens are no longer auto-generated for every Service Account. Because of this, we’ll need to create it ourselves.

To do this, please copy the following YAML into a service-account-token.yml file:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
type: kubernetes.io/service-account-token
metadata:
  name: admin-user-token
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/service-account.name: admin-user

You should then apply the file to add the Secret to your cluster:

kubectl apply -f service-account-token.yml

It should display something like this:

$ kubectl apply -f dashboard-cluster-role-binding.yml
secret/admin-user-token created

Bearer Token

Next step is recovering the bearer token you will use to log into your Dashboard. Execute the following command:

kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard describe secret $(kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard get secret | grep admin-user-token | awk '{print $1}')

It should display something like this:

$ kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard describe secret $(kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard get secret | grep admin-user-token | awk '{print $1}')
Name:         admin-user-token-2kv9s
Namespace:    kubernetes-dashboard
Labels:       <none>
Annotations:  kubernetes.io/service-account.name: admin-user
              kubernetes.io/service-account.uid: fa0408f5-bb43-4bf3-976c-0e584e284332

Type:  kubernetes.io/service-account-token

Data
====
namespace:  20 bytes
token:      <very_very_long_token>
ca.crt:     1801 bytes

Copy the token and store it securely, as it’s your key to the Dashboard.

Access the Dashboard

To access the Dashboard from your local workstation, you must create a secure channel to your OVHcloud Managed Kubernetes cluster. You can do this by using kubectl as a proxy from your workstation to the cluster:

kubectl proxy

Your kubectl is opening a connection and acting as a proxy from your workstation to the cluster. Any HTTP request to your local port (8001) will be proxified and sent to the cluster API.

$ kubectl proxy
Starting to serve on 127.0.0.1:8001

Next, access the Dashboard at:
http://localhost:8001/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/https:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/

In the login page, select authentication by token, and use the bearer token you recovered in the previous step.

You will then be taken directly to your Dashboard:

Delete all kubernetes-dashboard resources

To remove all resources created by your previous kubernetes-dashboard deployment, just execute the following commands:

kubectl delete ns kubernetes-dashboard
kubectl delete -f dashboard-cluster-role-binding.yml