Kubernetes : Enable Dashboard2025/05/20

Enable Dashboard to manage Kubernetes Cluster on Web UI.

In this example, a Kubernetes cluster is configured using four nodes as follows.

+----------------------+   +----------------------+
|  [ ctrl.srv.world ]  |   |   [ dlp.srv.world ]  |
|     Manager Node     |   |     Control Plane    |
+-----------+----------+   +-----------+----------+
        eth0|10.0.0.25             eth0|10.0.0.30
            |                          |
------------+--------------------------+-----------
            |                          |
        eth0|10.0.0.51             eth0|10.0.0.52
+-----------+----------+   +-----------+----------+
| [ node01.srv.world ] |   | [ node02.srv.world ] |
|     Worker Node#1    |   |     Worker Node#2    |
+----------------------+   +----------------------+

[1]	Disable Firewalld if it is running on all nodes, except for the Manager node. (in a CRI-O + Calico environment, it will not work properly if Firewalld is running)
[2]	Install Helm, refer to here.
[3]	Enable Dashboard.

[cent@ctrl ~]$

helm repo add kubernetes-dashboard https://kubernetes.github.io/dashboard/

"kubernetes-dashboard" has been added to your repositories

[cent@ctrl ~]$

helm install kubernetes-dashboard kubernetes-dashboard/kubernetes-dashboard --create-namespace --namespace kubernetes-dashboard

NAME: kubernetes-dashboard
LAST DEPLOYED: Tue May 20 10:06:14 2025
NAMESPACE: kubernetes-dashboard
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
*************************************************************************************************
*** PLEASE BE PATIENT: Kubernetes Dashboard may need a few minutes to get up and become ready ***
*************************************************************************************************

Congratulations! You have just installed Kubernetes Dashboard in your cluster.

To access Dashboard run:
  kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard port-forward svc/kubernetes-dashboard-kong-proxy 8443:443

NOTE: In case port-forward command does not work, make sure that kong service name is correct.
      Check the services in Kubernetes Dashboard namespace using:
        kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard get svc

Dashboard will be available at:
  https://localhost:8443

[cent@ctrl ~]$

kubectl get pods -n kubernetes-dashboard

NAME                                                   READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
kubernetes-dashboard-api-5454b45699-hrb8f              1/1     Running   0          88s
kubernetes-dashboard-auth-5ddf54679d-8r7f4             1/1     Running   0          88s
kubernetes-dashboard-kong-678c76c548-gc2zm             1/1     Running   0          88s
kubernetes-dashboard-metrics-scraper-fb684d698-4mvvj   1/1     Running   0          88s
kubernetes-dashboard-web-66f6b9485c-b24zk              1/1     Running   0          88s

[4]	Add a service account for the dashboard and configure it to have access to the dashboard.

[cent@ctrl ~]$

kubectl create serviceaccount -n kubernetes-dashboard dashboard-admin

serviceaccount/dashboard-admin created

[cent@ctrl ~]$

vi rbac.yml

# create new

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: dashboard-admin
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: cluster-admin
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: dashboard-admin
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard

[cent@ctrl ~]$

kubectl apply -f rbac.yml

clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/dashboard-admin created

# get security token of the account above

[cent@ctrl ~]$

kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard create token dashboard-admin

eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsI.....

# set port-forwarding to access to dashboard

[cent@ctrl ~]$

kubectl port-forward -n kubernetes-dashboard svc/kubernetes-dashboard-kong-proxy --address 0.0.0.0 8443:443

Forwarding from 0.0.0.0:8443 -> 8443

[5]	Access to the URL below on a client computer in your local network. ⇒ https://(Control Plane Node Hostname or IP address):(setting port)/ After displaying following form, Copy and paste the security token you got on [2] to [Enter token] section and Click [Sing In] button.

[6]	After authentication successfully passed, Kubernetes Cluster Dashboard is displayed.

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