The Kubernetes cluster can be deployed on a local machine, cloud, on-prem datacenter, or you can go for a managed Kubernetes cluster. When we install the Kubernetes cluster on a Linux distribution (openSUSE, Ubuntu, etc) for common usage, we won't get Kubernetes dashboard by default. We will have to install and configure it separately that might be extra work.

What is the Kubernetes dashboard?

Kubernetes Dashboard is a general-purpose, web-based UI for Kubernetes clusters. It allows users to manage applications running in the cluster and troubleshoot them, as well as manage the cluster itself.

If you have deployed the K8s cluster using Rancher, it does provide an inbuilt dashboard. Rancher is a solution that makes it easy to run Kubernetes everywhere. You can interact with downstream Kubernetes clusters through the Rancher server’s UI

Recently one of my colleagues (Rama Viswanath) suggested Lens. Thanks to him, I find it quite simple and user-friendly means of managing the Kubernetes clusters. Lens is available for installation on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Lens features:

• User-friendly UI/UX
• Multi-cluster management
• Standalone application
• Real-time information
• Resource utilization charts and trends
• Terminal access to nodes and containers
• Performance optimized for massive clusters
• Kubernetes RBAC support

Lens connects to Kubernetes clusters by way of the kubeconfig file. Where the kubeconfig file is located will depend on the platform you are using.

Here are some screenshots from my K8s cluster through Lens