Expose kubernetes dashboard via built-in Traefik ingress controller in k3s cluster

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This post describes how to expose the kubernetes dashboard deployed in a k3s cluster via the default Traefik ingress controller. It was quite difficult to get it working, mainly because the kubernetes dashboard is by default configured for https. The way described here keeps that setup for the kubernetes dashboard.

Used Versions

Rancher k3s versionv1.30.6+k3s1
kubernetes dashboard imagekubernetesui/dashboard:v2.0.0
Versions of involved components

Config

I'm using the very straight forward deployment definition for the kubernetes dashboard as explained below. I'm not using the helm chart at the moment, but the ingress definition should work as well in that scenario (maybe with some small tweaks).

Kubernetes Dashboard

This section shows my kubernetes dashboard deployment and surroundings so that the Ingress section (which links into these definitions) makes sense. The only object which is changed compared to the "original" definition is the service definition of the kubernetes dashboard, please check below.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: kubernetes-dashboard
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: admin-user
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: admin-user
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: cluster-admin
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: admin-user
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
---
kind: Service
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard-service
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
  annotations:
      traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/service.serverstransport: kubernetes-dashboard-kubernetes-dashboard-transport@kubernetescrd
  spec:
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  ports:
    - port: 443
      targetPort: 8443
  selector:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
---

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard-certs
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
type: Opaque

---

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard-csrf
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
type: Opaque
data:
  csrf: ""

---

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard-key-holder
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
type: Opaque

---

kind: ConfigMap
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard-settings
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard

---

kind: Role
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
rules:
  # Allow Dashboard to get, update and delete Dashboard exclusive secrets.
  - apiGroups: [""]
    resources: ["secrets"]
    resourceNames: ["kubernetes-dashboard-key-holder", "kubernetes-dashboard-certs", "kubernetes-dashboard-csrf"]
    verbs: ["get", "update", "delete"]
    # Allow Dashboard to get and update 'kubernetes-dashboard-settings' config map.
  - apiGroups: [""]
    resources: ["configmaps"]
    resourceNames: ["kubernetes-dashboard-settings"]
    verbs: ["get", "update"]
    # Allow Dashboard to get metrics.
  - apiGroups: [""]
    resources: ["services"]
    resourceNames: ["heapster", "dashboard-metrics-scraper"]
    verbs: ["proxy"]
  - apiGroups: [""]
    resources: ["services/proxy"]
    resourceNames: ["heapster", "http:heapster:", "https:heapster:", "dashboard-metrics-scraper", "http:dashboard-metrics-scraper"]
    verbs: ["get"]

---

kind: ClusterRole
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard
rules:
  # Allow Metrics Scraper to get metrics from the Metrics server
  - apiGroups: ["metrics.k8s.io"]
    resources: ["pods", "nodes"]
    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]

---

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Role
  name: kubernetes-dashboard
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: kubernetes-dashboard
    namespace: kubernetes-dashboard

---

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: kubernetes-dashboard
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: kubernetes-dashboard
subjects:
  - kind: ServiceAccount
    name: kubernetes-dashboard
    namespace: kubernetes-dashboard

---

kind: Deployment
apiVersion: apps/v1
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  name: kubernetes-dashboard
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
spec:
  replicas: 1
  revisionHistoryLimit: 2
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        k8s-app: kubernetes-dashboard
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: kubernetes-dashboard
          image: kubernetesui/dashboard:v2.0.0
          imagePullPolicy: Always
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8443
              protocol: TCP
          args:
            - --auto-generate-certificates
            - --namespace=kubernetes-dashboard
            # Uncomment the following line to manually specify Kubernetes API server Host
            # If not specified, Dashboard will attempt to auto discover the API server and connect
            # to it. Uncomment only if the default does not work.
            # - --apiserver-host=http://my-address:port
          volumeMounts:
            - name: kubernetes-dashboard-certs
              mountPath: /certs
              # Create on-disk volume to store exec logs
            - mountPath: /tmp
              name: tmp-volume
          livenessProbe:
            httpGet:
              scheme: HTTPS
              path: /
              port: 8443
            initialDelaySeconds: 30
            timeoutSeconds: 30
          securityContext:
            allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
            readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
            runAsUser: 1001
            runAsGroup: 2001
      volumes:
        - name: kubernetes-dashboard-certs
          secret:
            secretName: kubernetes-dashboard-certs
        - name: tmp-volume
          emptyDir: {}
      serviceAccountName: kubernetes-dashboard
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      # Comment the following tolerations if Dashboard must not be deployed on master
      tolerations:
        - key: node-role.kubernetes.io/master
          effect: NoSchedule

---

kind: Service
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: dashboard-metrics-scraper
  name: dashboard-metrics-scraper
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
spec:
  ports:
    - port: 8000
      targetPort: 8000
  selector:
    k8s-app: dashboard-metrics-scraper

---

kind: Deployment
apiVersion: apps/v1
metadata:
  labels:
    k8s-app: dashboard-metrics-scraper
  name: dashboard-metrics-scraper
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
spec:
  replicas: 1
  revisionHistoryLimit: 10
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      k8s-app: dashboard-metrics-scraper
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        k8s-app: dashboard-metrics-scraper
      annotations:
        seccomp.security.alpha.kubernetes.io/pod: 'runtime/default'
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: dashboard-metrics-scraper
          image: kubernetesui/metrics-scraper:v1.0.4
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8000
              protocol: TCP
          livenessProbe:
            httpGet:
              scheme: HTTP
              path: /
              port: 8000
            initialDelaySeconds: 30
            timeoutSeconds: 30
          volumeMounts:
          - mountPath: /tmp
            name: tmp-volume
          securityContext:
            allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
            readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
            runAsUser: 1001
            runAsGroup: 2001
      serviceAccountName: kubernetes-dashboard
      nodeSelector:
        "kubernetes.io/os": linux
      # Comment the following tolerations if Dashboard must not be deployed on master
      tolerations:
        - key: node-role.kubernetes.io/master
          effect: NoSchedule
      volumes:
        - name: tmp-volume
          emptyDir: {}

Ingress

For the Ingress definition I use Traefik specific components: ServersTransport and IngressRoute

---
apiVersion: traefik.containo.us/v1alpha1
kind: ServersTransport
metadata:
  name: kubernetes-dashboard-transport
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
spec:
  serverName: kubernetes-dashboard
  insecureSkipVerify: true
  maxIdleConnsPerHost: 1
  forwardingTimeouts:
    dialTimeout: 42s
    responseHeaderTimeout: 42s
    idleConnTimeout: 42s
---
apiVersion: traefik.containo.us/v1alpha1
kind: IngressRoute
metadata:
  name: kubernetes-dashboard-ingress
  namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
spec:
  routes:
    - kind: Rule
      match: Host(`dashboard.local`)
      priority: 10
      services:
        - kind: Service
          name: kubernetes-dashboard-service
          namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
          passHostHeader: true
          port: 443
          responseForwarding:
            flushInterval: 1ms
          scheme: https
          serversTransport: kubernetes-dashboard-transport
          sticky:
            cookie:
              httpOnly: true
              name: cookie
              secure: true
              sameSite: none
          strategy: RoundRobin
          weight: 10

Test

I added dashboard.local into my /etc/hosts file mapping to the k8s master ip.

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