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minikube dashboard

Learn to open the web UI with minikube dashboard.

minikube dashboard

The Kubernetes Dashboard is a web interface that shows the objects in the cluster in a browser: deployments, pods, logs, events. minikube dashboard enables the add-on, starts a proxy and opens the browser:

$ minikube dashboard --url
🤔  Verifying dashboard health ...
🚀  Launching proxy ...
http://127.0.0.1:43215/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/http:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/

The command keeps the terminal busy; Ctrl+C closes the proxy.

The command-line alternative

Everything the Dashboard shows can also be seen with kubectl. Events are the fastest way to understand why something didn't happen:

kubectl get all                                  # basic objects
kubectl get events --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp | tail -5
kubectl logs deploy/web --tail=20

Terminal interfaces like k9s are also a lightweight alternative to the dashboard.

Practice Dashboard and events

Write three commands: print the dashboard address without opening a browser; list all the basic objects (get all); list the events sorted by .metadata.creationTimestamp.

Starter code

terminal
# buraya yaz

Sample solution

terminal
minikube dashboard --url
kubectl get all
kubectl get events --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp

Expected output

http://127.0.0.1:43215/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/http:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/
NAME                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod/web-7c5b9f6d8-abcde   1/1     Running   0          5m
LAST SEEN   TYPE     REASON    OBJECT                    MESSAGE
5m          Normal   Pulled    pod/web-7c5b9f6d8-abcde   Container image "nginx:1.27" already present

Questions and answers

Review the lesson questions together with their answers. To test yourself, solve the lesson interactively.

1 Why is the Dashboard opened carefully on production clusters?

  • It requires a license
  • Opened with broad permissions, it allows managing the whole cluster Correct answer
  • It is very slow
  • It deletes pods

Explanation: Dashboards left open have led to crypto-mining attacks in the past.

2 Sort the events by creation time.

Question 
kubectl get events ____=.metadata.creationTimestamp
Answer 
kubectl get events --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp

Explanation: --sort-by sorts by a JSONPath field.

3 Match.

Term Meaning
minikube dashboard Web interface
--url Don't open the browser
kubectl get events Events
k9s Terminal interface

All lessons in Intermediate

1 What is Kubernetes?

  1. What is Kubernetes?
  2. Why Kubernetes?
  3. Cluster architecture
  4. Control plane
  5. Worker node
  6. Summary - What is Kubernetes

2 Minikube

  1. What is Minikube?
  2. Installing Minikube
  3. minikube start
  4. minikube status
  5. minikube dashboard
  6. Summary - Minikube

3 kubectl basics

  1. What is kubectl?
  2. kubectl get
  3. kubectl describe
  4. kubectl apply
  5. kubectl delete
  6. Summary - kubectl

4 Pod

  1. What is a Pod?
  2. Pod YAML
  3. Creating a Pod
  4. Pod status
  5. Multi-container Pod
  6. Summary - Pod

5 Deployment

  1. What is a Deployment?
  2. Deployment YAML
  3. Replica count
  4. Rolling update
  5. Rollback
  6. Summary - Deployment

6 ReplicaSet

  1. What is a ReplicaSet?
  2. ReplicaSet YAML
  3. ReplicaSet selector
  4. Scaling
  5. Self-healing
  6. Summary - ReplicaSet

7 Service

  1. What is a Service?
  2. ClusterIP
  3. NodePort
  4. LoadBalancer
  5. Service selector
  6. Summary - Service

8 ConfigMap

  1. What is a ConfigMap?
  2. ConfigMap YAML
  3. Environment variable
  4. Mounting as a volume
  5. kubectl create configmap
  6. Summary - ConfigMap

9 Secret

  1. What is a Secret?
  2. Secret types
  3. Secret YAML
  4. Mounting a Secret
  5. kubectl create secret
  6. Summary - Secret

10 Namespace

  1. What is a Namespace?
  2. kubectl get namespaces
  3. Creating a Namespace
  4. The -n flag
  5. Default Namespace
  6. Summary - Namespace

11 Labels and selectors

  1. What is a label?
  2. Adding labels
  3. Label selector
  4. kubectl get -l
  5. Equality and set selectors
  6. Summary - Labels

12 Project: Multi-tier app

  1. Project design
  2. Database Deployment
  3. Web Deployment
  4. ConfigMap and Secret
  5. Putting it together - multi-tier

13 Troubleshooting

  1. kubectl logs
  2. kubectl exec
  3. kubectl describe pod
  4. CrashLoopBackOff
  5. Pending Pod
  6. Summary - Troubleshooting

14 Intermediate final

  1. Challenge - Pod YAML
  2. Challenge - Deployment
  3. Challenge - Service
  4. Challenge - ConfigMap
  5. Challenge - Intermediate project