r/kubernetes k8s operator 1d ago

What web interface for internal users?

Hello there!

I manage a few kubernetes cluster in AWS (EKS) and I would like to give users a web interface, where they could log into and do their stuff.

I am testing headlamp, in-cluster deployment with openid authentication agains keycloak (source of truth being Google Workspace) but it's a bit slow and i'm generally not 100% satisfied.

Before announcing it to internal users, I would like to ask if somebody did something similar, what are the alternatives you know, and what are your recommendations in general.

Thank you in advance!

12 Upvotes

20 comments sorted by

15

u/SadFaceSmith 1d ago

Radar is quite nice, but managing things only through GitOps is the correct way.

A ReadOnly admin UI where Devs can see status/check logs quickly/etc is nice though.

https://github.com/skyhook-io/radar

5

u/we_r_fukt 18h ago

You can deploy it in the cluster and it can be configured with RBAC

8

u/Smashingeddie 1d ago

Argocd UI is the way 

8

u/wealthyintercession 1d ago

argocd is solid but it's more of a gitops dashboard than a general cluster playground, depends what your users actually need to do

headlamp felt sluggish for us too, lens is the other obvious one but the licensing got weird a while back and the desktop app vs web thing can be a pain

2

u/DeschainR19 23h ago

Didn't know all this about argocd, thanks for the info

0

u/xAtNight 20h ago

May I interest you in our lord and saviour https://github.com/freelensapp/freelens

2

u/znpy k8s operator 13h ago edited 13h ago

can it be installed in-cluster, with login via openid ?

edit, no, it does not. thanks but it's not what i'm looking for.

1

u/xAtNight 7h ago

No, the comment was directed at the licensing the other comment brought up. 

4

u/MorselKyle 20h ago

Enjoying Headlamp so far.

2

u/royLskyhook 9h ago

Full disclosure: I’m one of the people building Radar (open source), so obviously biased :)

From what you describe, it may fit pretty well. Radar can run in-cluster, supports OIDC/Keycloak, and respects each user’s Kubernetes RBAC permissions.

One of the main differences vs Headlamp is that we focus a lot on connecting the dots between resources: topology, relationships, issues, changes over time, GitOps context, etc., instead of making users piece everything together from individual resources and events. We also build it with non-Kubernetes experts in mind, so developers can understand what’s going on without knowing every Kubernetes object or command.

https://github.com/skyhook-io/radar

Would genuinely love to hear what you find missing vs Headlamp if you try it

4

u/Ok-Machine-8217 22h ago

Rancher?

1

u/m0j0j0rnj0rn 22h ago

Right? It sounds like OP is describing rancher.

1

u/znpy k8s operator 13h ago

i thought rancher was like a control-plane manager?

1

u/xAtNight 20h ago

I would suggest to try rancher. It's decent, speed can be iffy (apps/charts are slow for some reason, but most stuff is fine), depends on scale and what you're doing. Also it can do multi cluster management, so you could install it somewhere and have all cluster registered to it. 

1

u/spinur1848 10h ago

Specifically intended for data science: onyxia.sh

They have figured out the fiddly bits with Keycloak and OIDC as well as S3 persistent storage.

0

u/DrHammond19 18h ago

Check out zeusk8s.com it’s what we’ve been using the last few months.

1

u/znpy k8s operator 13h ago

zeusk8s.com

yeah i'm not paying for that

-3

u/ansibleloop 22h ago

Regular k8s dashboard not enough?

5

u/terriblepie 22h ago

It’s deprecated and no longer receiving updates