Using the Kyma Dashboard

You are planning to use the SAP BTP, Kyma runtime and have heard of the option to use the Kyma Dashboard for interacting with the underlying Kubernetes cluster. You now want to explore the Kyma Dashboard and learn how to use it.

The Kyma Dashboard is a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) that allows you to interact with your cluster. Since it is part of the open-source Kyma project, it can also be used standalone, without being provisioned by SAP.

However, SAP is providing a centrally hosted version of the Kyma Dashboard for SAP BTP, Kyma rurntime customers, which is accessible through the SAP BTP Cockpit or dashboard.kyma.cloud.sap.

For accessing your underlying Kubernetes cluster, you have to provide the Kyma Dashboard information such as the location of the cluster, the cluster name, and authentication details. The Kyma Dashboard will then use this information to connect to your Kubernetes cluster and display the cluster details.

We already covered the responsibility of the kubeconfig file. The kubectl CLI is using it to connect to your Kubernetes cluster. The Kyma Dashboard is also using the kubeconfig file to connect to your Kubernetes cluster. So, to connect the Kyma Dashboard to your Kubernetes cluster, you have to provide the Kyma Dashboard with the kubeconfig file. You can do this by downloading the kubeconfigfile from the SAP BTP Cockpit and uploading it to the Kyma Dashboard.

If you want to connect to a cluster, you can do this by choosing the Connect Cluster button in the Kyma Dashboard. You will then be asked to provide the kubeconfig file. You can do this by choosing the Upload kubeconfig button and selecting the kubeconfig file from your local file system.

You can add multiple clusters to the Kyma Dashboard. You can switch between the clusters easily by choosing the respective cluster table or by choosing the Clusters Overview button in the top-left corner of the Kyma Dashboard.

Note

Information in the kubeconfig file are sensitive. Therefore, you should not share the kubeconfig file with other users. It is also only stored in your browser's local storage. If you clear your browser's local storage, you will have to upload the kubeconfig file again.

The Kyma Dashboard is working on the namespace level. This means that you can only see and interact with the resources that are in the namespace that you have selected. You can select the namespace by choosing the namespace selector in the top right corner of the Kyma Dashboard.

The dashboard comes with an overview page for each namespace. This page shows you the status of the objects that are assigned to this namespace. It directly provides an overview of the overall healthiness of your objects as well as resource consumption (CPU, Memory, Network).

We already covered some basic Kubernetes objects in the previous lessons. On the left side of the Kyma Dashboard, you can see different objects grouped by category. You can select the respective category to expand it and see the objects that are available in this category.

For example, let's have a look at the Pods category.

There you can select Create Podto create a new pod by providing a pod manifest in YAML format.

Note

All objects on the SAP BTP, Kyma runtime can be configured via the respective manifest in YAML format. The Kyma Dashboard is using the Kubernetes API to create, update, and delete objects. Some objects, also have a graphical editor, which allows you to create and edit objects without having to write the YAML manifest by hand.

In this lesson, you learned how to use the Kyma Dashboard to interact with your Kubernetes cluster. You also got an understanding on how to connect the Kyma Dashboard to your Kubernetes cluster and how to switch between different clusters. Additionally, you learned how to work with namespaces and how to manage resources. We will cover more objects and subpages in the next lessons.