Helm Install Headlamp#

Last chapter, I deployed an app by manually creating & applying manifest files.

This time I’ll use Helm as a more convenient way to install my next app: Headlamp.

Helm#

Helm is “the package manager for kubernetes”.

It allows developers to bundle together all the related manifest files for a given app(s).

This makes it easier to install, configure, and upgrade applications on a cluster.

Installation#

Easily done - I follow the guide and use the install script.

Headlamp#

Headlamp is the successor to the (now deprecated) kubernetes dashboard.

Its a UI that lets you visualize and manage your cluster resources via a web interface.

Helm Install#

Following the helm chart, I run the following:

helm repo add headlamp https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/headlamp/
helm install my-headlamp headlamp/headlamp -n kube-system

This adds the headlamp repo and installs it in the kube-system namespace.

Ingress#

I’ll still need to set up my own ingress to expose the installed app.

I create a new manifest file for one in my homelab repo at /kubernetes/headlamp/headlamp-ingress.yaml:

I choose to serve this at headlamp-k3s.homelab.lan

And apply the manifest with kubectl:

DNS Entry#

As always, I add an entry for this in my /etc/hosts file on the homelab box:

(see ch 8 where I configured a wildcard proxy for subdomains to my cluster).

And restart dnsmasq with systemctl (see ch 3 DNS).

Browser Access#

Now when I visit https://headlamp-k3s.homelab.lan on my local network, I see this!

Access Token#

The headlamp docs recommend creating an admin service account to use for login.

I specify the SA and ClusterRoleBinding in a new admin-service-account.yaml:

Apply it, and get a token to use:

After pasting in the token value, I’m successfully logged in to headlamp!

Homepage Updates#

I want to easily access headlamp from the homepage I deployed in ch 8.

Annotations for Headlamp#

The homepage app ingress manifest had annotations that populated it on the UI.

I edit my headlamp-ingress.yaml file to include similar ones:

After reapplying the headlamp-ingress and visiting https://k3s.homelab.lan,

behold, it works!

The ‘headlamp.png’ is an included icon for the homepage app.

Remove Placeholder Services#

Now seems like a good time for a quick clean up.

I edit the homepage ConfigMap and replace the services.yaml values with an empty string.

I also remove the annotations from the homepage Ingress,

as I don’t need a link to the homepage on the homepage.

Clean Homepage#

Now I can access Headlamp directly from a newly cleaned up landing page. 👍

See this commit with the files from this chapter.