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In-cluster

A common use case for any Kubernetes web UI is to deploy it in-cluster and set up an ingress server for having it available to users.

Using Helm​

The easiest way to install headlamp in your existing cluster is to use helm with our helm chart.

# first add our custom repo to your local helm repositories
helm repo add headlamp https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/headlamp/

# now you should be able to install headlamp via helm
helm install my-headlamp headlamp/headlamp --namespace kube-system

As usual, it is possible to configure the helm release via the values file or setting your preferred values directly.

# install headlamp with your own values.yaml
helm install my-headlamp headlamp/headlamp --namespace kube-system -f values.yaml

# install headlamp by setting your values directly
helm install my-headlamp headlamp/headlamp --namespace kube-system --set replicaCount=2

Using simple yaml​

We also maintain a simple/vanilla file for setting up a Headlamp deployment and service. Be sure to review it and change anything you need.

If you're happy with the options in this deployment file, and assuming you have a running Kubernetes cluster and your kubeconfig pointing to it, you can run:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kinvolk/headlamp/main/kubernetes-headlamp.yaml

Use a non-default kube config file​

By default, Headlamp uses the default service account from the namespace it is deployed to, and generates a kubeconfig from it named main.

If you wish to use another specific non-default kubeconfig file, then you can do it by mounting it to the default location at /home/headlamp/.config/Headlamp/kubeconfigs/config, or providing a custom path Headlamp with the -kubeconfig argument or the KUBECONFIG env (through helm values.env)

Use several kubeconfig files​

If you need to use more than one kubeconfig file at the same time, you can list each config file path with a ":" separator in the KUBECONFIG env.

Exposing Headlamp with an ingress server​

With the instructions in the previous section, the Headlamp service should be running, but you still need the ingress server as mentioned. We provide a sample ingress YAML file for this purpose, but you have to manually replace the URL placeholder with the desired URL. The ingress file also assumes that you have Contour and a cert-manager set up, but if you don't, then you'll just not have TLS.

Assuming your URL is headlamp.mydeployment.io, getting the sample ingress file and changing the URL can quickly be done by:

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kinvolk/headlamp/main/kubernetes-headlamp-ingress-sample.yaml | sed -e s/__URL__/headlamp.mydeployment.io/ > headlamp-ingress.yaml

and with that, you'll have a configured ingress file, so verify it and apply it:

kubectl apply -f ./headlamp-ingress.yaml

Exposing Headlamp with port-forwarding​

If you want to quickly access Headlamp (after having its service running) and don't want to set up an ingress for it, you can run use port-forwarding as follows:

kubectl port-forward -n kube-system service/headlamp 8080:80

and then you can access localhost:8080 in your browser.

Accessing Headlamp​

Once Headlamp is up and running, be sure to enable access to it either by creating a service account or by setting up OIDC.

Plugin Management​

Headlamp supports managing plugins through a sidecar container when deployed in-cluster.

Using values.yaml​

You can directly specify the plugin configuration in your values.yaml:

pluginsManager:
  enabled: true
  configContent: |
    plugins:
      - name: my-plugin
        source: https://artifacthub.io/packages/headlamp/my-repo/my_plugin
        version: 1.0.0
    installOptions:
      parallel: true
      maxConcurrent: 2
  baseImage: node:lts-alpine
  version: latest

Using a Separate plugin.yml​

Alternatively, you can maintain a separate plugin.yml file:

  1. Create a plugin.yml file:
plugins:
  - name: my-plugin
    source: https://artifacthub.io/packages/headlamp/my-repo/my_plugin
    version: 1.0.0
    # Optional: specify dependencies if needed
    dependencies:
      - another-plugin

installOptions:
  parallel: true
  maxConcurrent: 2
  1. Install/upgrade Headlamp using the plugin configuration:
helm upgrade --install my-headlamp headlamp/headlamp --namespace kube-system -f values.yaml --set pluginsManager.configContent="$(cat plugin.yml)"

Plugin Configuration Format​

The plugin configuration supports the following fields:

  • plugins: Array of plugins to install
    • name: Plugin name (required)
    • source: Plugin source URL from Artifact Hub (required)
    • version: Plugin version (required)
    • dependencies: Array of plugin names that this plugin depends on (optional)
  • installOptions:
    • parallel: Whether to install plugins in parallel (default: false)
    • maxConcurrent: Maximum number of concurrent installations when parallel is true

Auto-updating Plugins​

Headlamp's plugin manager can automatically watch for changes in the plugin configuration. However, you need to enable watch for these changes in the main headlamp container. This can be enabled through the watchPlugins setting in values.yaml:

config:
  watchPlugins: true  # Set to true to enable automatic plugin updates in main headlamp container

When enabled, any plugins' changes (either through Helm upgrades or direct ConfigMap updates) wil update in the main headlamp container by enabling --watch-plugins-changes flag on headlamp server.