Kubebox ^⎈❏

Terminal and Web console for Kubernetes

Features

• ✓ Configuration from kubeconfig files (KUBECONFIG environment variable or $HOME/.kube)

• ✓ Switch contexts interactively

• ✓ Authentication support (token, username / password, private key / cert, OpenID Connect, Amazon EKS, Google Kubernetes Engine, Digital Ocean)

• ✓ Namespace selection and pods list watching

• ✓ Container log scrolling / watching

• ✓ Container resources usage (memory, CPU, network charts) ^[1]

• ✓ Container remote exec terminal

• ❏ Object configuration editor and CRUD operations

• ❏ Cluster and nodes views / monitoring

• ❏ Port proxying and interactive HTTP client

Follow for some updates.

Run

The following alternatives are available for you to use Kubebox, depending on your preferences and constraints:

Executable

Download the Kubebox standalone executable for your OS:

# Linux
$ curl -Lo kubebox https://github.com/astefanutti/kubebox/releases/download/v0.6.1/kubebox-linux && chmod +x kubebox
# OSX
$ curl -Lo kubebox https://github.com/astefanutti/kubebox/releases/download/v0.6.1/kubebox-macos && chmod +x kubebox
# Windows
$ curl -Lo kubebox.exe https://github.com/astefanutti/kubebox/releases/download/v0.6.1/kubebox-windows.exe

Then run:

$ ./kubebox

Server

Kubebox can be served from a service hosted in your Kubernetes cluster. Terminal emulation is provided by Xterm.js and the communication with the Kubernetes master API is proxied by the server.

To deploy the server in your Kubernetes cluster, run:

# Make sure to replace the following fields:
# - The ingress host
# - The subject service account namespace
$ kubectl create -f https://raw.github.com/astefanutti/kubebox/master/kubernetes.yaml

For the Ingress resource to work, the cluster must have an Ingress controller running. See Ingress controllers for more information.

Alternatively, to deploy the server in your OpenShift cluster, run:

$ oc new-app -f https://raw.github.com/astefanutti/kubebox/master/openshift.yaml

Kubectl

You can run Kubebox as an in-cluster client with kubectl, e.g.:

$ kubectl run kubebox -it --rm --env="TERM=xterm" --image=astefanutti/kubebox --restart=Never

If RBAC is enabled, you’ll have to use the --serviceaccount option and reference a service account with sufficient permissions.

Docker

You can run Kubebox using Docker, e.g.:

$ docker run -it --rm astefanutti/kubebox

You may want to mount your home directory so that Kubebox can rely on the ~/.kube/config file, e.g.:

$ docker run -it --rm -v ~/.kube/:/home/node/.kube/:ro astefanutti/kubebox

Online

Kubebox is available online at https://astefanutti.github.com/kubebox. Note that this requires this address to match the allowed origins for CORS by the API server. This can be achived with the Kubernetes API server CLI, e.g.:

$ kube-apiserver --cors-allowed-origins .*

Authentication

We try to support the various authentication strategies supported by kubectl, in order to provide seamless integration with your local setup. Here are the different authentication strategies we support, depending on how you’re using Kubebox:

	Executable	Docker	Online
OpenID Connect	✔️	✔️	✔️[2]
Amazon EKS	✔️
Digital Ocean	✔️
Google Kubernetes Engine	✔️

If the mode you’re using isn’t supported, you can refresh the authentication token/certs manually and update your kubeconfig file accordingly.

Hotkeys

Keybinding	Description
General
l, Ctrl+l	Login
[⇧+]◀, ▶ [Alt+]1, …​, 9	Navigate screens (use ⇧ or Alt inside exec terminal)
▲, ▼	Navigate list / form / log
Enter	Select item / submit form
Esc	Close modal window / cancel form / rewind focus
q, Ctrl+q	Exit [3]
Login
◀, ▶	Navigate Kube configurations
Namespace
n	Change current namespace
r	Remote shell into container
m	Memory usage
c	CPU usage
t	Network usage
Log
g, ⇧+g	Move to top / bottom
Ctrl+u, Ctrl+d	Move one page up / down

FAQ

• Resources usage metrics are unavailable!

  • You may face issue #56297 that still affects Kubernetes versions from 1.8.0 to 1.11.x

  • The metrics are retrieved from the embedded cAdvisor /stats endpoints, that are accessed by creating a proxy on the node Kubelets, and which requires proper RBAC permission, e.g.:

    $ kubectl auth can-i get nodes/proxy
    yes

Development

$ git clone https://github.com/astefanutti/kubebox.git
$ cd kubebox
$ npm install
$ node index.js

Terminal 🚀

---

1. Currently requires priviledged access / role.

2. Custom IDP certificate authority files are not supported in Web versions.

3. Not available in Web versions.