How to deploy Kubernetes Dashboard quickly and easily

Kubernetes offers a convenient graphical user interface with their web dashboard which can be used to create, monitor and manage a cluster. The installation is quite straight-forward but takes a few steps to set up everything in a convenient manner.

In addition to deploying the dashboard, we’ll go over how to set up both admin and read-only access to the dashboard. However, before we begin, we need to have a working Kubernetes cluster. You can get started with Kubernetes by following our earlier tutorial.

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1. 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 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 <user> and <master_public_IP> 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.

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

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

kubectl get pods -A

...
kubernetes-dashboard   dashboard-metrics-scraper-6b4884c9d5-v4z89   1/1     Running   0          30m
kubernetes-dashboard   kubernetes-dashboard-7b544877d5-m8jzk        1/1     Running   0          30m

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

2. 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 using tokens.

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

mkdir ~/dashboard && cd ~/dashboard

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

nano 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.

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.

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_ztW7COlKWvSVbhudjwcl6w

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.

3. 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

nano 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 which 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.

4. 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.

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.

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.

5. Stopping the dashboard

User roles that are no longer needed can be removed using the delete method.

kubectl delete -f dashboard-admin.yaml
kubectl delete -f dashboard-read-only.yaml

Likewise, if you want to disable the dashboard, it can be deleted just like any other deployment.

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

The dashboard can then be redeployed at any time following the same procedure as before.

6. Setting up management script

The steps to deploy or delete the dashboard are not complicated but they can be further simplified.

The following script can be used to start, stop or check the dashboard status.

nano ~/dashboard/dashboard.sh

#!/bin/bash
showtoken=1
cmd="kubectl proxy"
count=`pgrep -cf "$cmd"`
dashboard_yaml="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.0.0/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml"
msgstarted="-e Kubernetes Dashboard e[92mstartede[0m"
msgstopped="Kubernetes Dashboard stopped"

case $1 in
start)
   kubectl apply -f $dashboard_yaml >/dev/null 2>&1
   kubectl apply -f ~/dashboard/dashboard-admin.yaml >/dev/null 2>&1
   kubectl apply -f ~/dashboard/dashboard-read-only.yaml >/dev/null 2>&1

   if [ $count = 0 ]; then
      nohup $cmd >/dev/null 2>&1 &
      echo $msgstarted
   else
      echo "Kubernetes Dashboard already running"
   fi
   ;;

stop)
   showtoken=0
   if [ $count -gt 0 ]; then
      kill -9 $(pgrep -f "$cmd")
   fi
   kubectl delete -f $dashboard_yaml >/dev/null 2>&1
   kubectl delete -f ~/dashboard/dashboard-admin.yaml >/dev/null 2>&1
   kubectl delete -f ~/dashboard/dashboard-read-only.yaml >/dev/null 2>&1
   echo $msgstopped
   ;;

status)
   found=`kubectl get serviceaccount admin-user -n kubernetes-dashboard 2>/dev/null`
   if [[ $count = 0 ]] || [[ $found = "" ]]; then
      showtoken=0
      echo $msgstopped
   else
      found=`kubectl get clusterrolebinding admin-user -n kubernetes-dashboard 2>/dev/null`
      if [[ $found = "" ]]; then
         nopermission=" but user has no permissions."
         echo $msgstarted$nopermission
         echo 'Run "dashboard start" to fix it.'
      else
         echo $msgstarted
      fi
   fi
   ;;
esac

# Show full command line # ps -wfC "$cmd"
if [ $showtoken -gt 0 ]; then
   # Show token
   echo "Admin token:"
   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
   echo

   echo "User read-only token:"
   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
   echo
fi

Once all set, save the file and exit the text editor.

Then make the script executable.

chmod +x ~/dashboard/dashboard.sh

Next, create a symbolic link to the dashboard script to be able to run it from anywhere on the system.

sudo ln -s ~/dashboard/dashboard.sh /usr/local/bin/dashboard

You can then use the following commands to run the dashboard like an application.

Start the dashboard and show the tokens

dashboard start

Check whether the dashboard is running or not and output the tokens if currently set.

dashboard status

Stop the dashboard

dashboard stop

Congratulations, you have successfully installed the Kubernetes dashboard! You can now start getting familiar with the dashboard by exploring the different menus and view it offers.