Kubebox ^⎈❏

Terminal console for Kubernetes clusters

Features

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

• ✓ Switch contexts interactively

• ✓ Login and OAuth authentication support

• ✓ 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

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:

# OSX
$ curl -Lo kubebox https://github.com/astefanutti/kubebox/releases/download/v0.3.1/kubebox-macos && chmod +x kubebox
# Linux
$ curl -Lo kubebox https://github.com/astefanutti/kubebox/releases/download/v0.3.1/kubebox-linux && chmod +x kubebox
# Windows
$ curl -Lo kubebox.exe https://github.com/astefanutti/kubebox/releases/download/v0.3.1/kubebox-windows

Kubectl

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

$ kubectl run kubebox -it --rm --image=astefanutti/kubebox --restart=Never

See the RBAC section for more information about RBAC authorization.

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

Server

Kubebox can be served from a service deployed in the target 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:

# Replace the ROUTE_HOSTNAME variable
$ 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. Besides, see the RBAC section for more information about RBAC authorization.

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

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

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 .*

NPM

Install Kubebox globally and run it:

$ npm install -g kubebox
$ kubebox

Or locally:

$ npm install kubebox
$ `npm bin`/kubebox

RBAC

If RBAC is enabled, Kubebox needs RBAC permissions to access the cluster resources. By default, while running as in-cluster client or server, Kubebox uses the default service account credentials to access the API server.

The following command can be run to bind the cluster-admin role to the default service account:

$ kubectl create clusterrolebinding default-cluster-admin --clusterrole=cluster-admin --serviceaccount=default:default

You can find more information in Configure Service Accounts for Pods.

Commands

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 [2]
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

Usage

✏️

Development

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

Terminal forever

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1. Currently requires priviledged access / role.

2. Not available in Web versions.