Edit

Installation

The Kubernetes feature is a plugin to Backstage, and it is exposed as a tab when viewing entities in the software catalog.

If you haven't setup Backstage already, read the Getting Started.

Adding the Kubernetes frontend plugin

The first step is to add the frontend Kubernetes plugin to your Backstage application. Navigate to your new Backstage application directory. And then to your packages/app directory, and install the @backstage/plugin-kubernetes package.

cd my-backstage-app/
cd packages/app
yarn add @backstage/plugin-kubernetes

Once the package has been installed, you need to import the plugin in your app. Add the following to packages/app/src/plugins.ts:

plugins.ts:

export { plugin as Kubernetes } from '@backstage/plugin-kubernetes';

Now, add the "Kubernetes" tab to the catalog entity page. In packages/app/src/components/catalog/EntityPage.tsx, you'll add a router to get to the tab, and add the tab itself.

EntityPage.tsx:

import { Router as KubernetesRouter } from '@backstage/plugin-kubernetes';

// ...

const ServiceEntityPage = ({ entity }: { entity: Entity }) => (
  <EntityPageLayout>
    // ...
    <EntityPageLayout.Content
      path="/kubernetes/*"
      title="Kubernetes"
      element={<KubernetesRouter entity={entity} />}
    />
    // ...
  </EntityPageLayout>
);

That's it! But now, we need the Kubernetes Backend plugin for the frontend to work.

Adding Kubernetes Backend plugin

Navigate to packages/backend of your Backstage app, and install the @backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend package.

cd my-backstage-app/
cd packages/backend
yarn add @backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend

Create a file called kubernetes.ts inside packages/backend/src/plugins/ and add the following

kubernetes.ts:

import { createRouter } from '@backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend';
import { PluginEnvironment } from '../types';

export default async function createPlugin({
  logger,
  config,
}: PluginEnvironment) {
  return await createRouter({ logger, config });
}

And import the plugin to packages/backend/src/index.ts. There are three lines of code you'll need to add, and they should be added near similar code in your existing Backstage backend.

index.ts:

import kubernetes from './plugins/kubernetes';

// ...

const kubernetesEnv = useHotMemoize(module, () => createEnv('kubernetes'));

// ...

apiRouter.use('/kubernetes', await kubernetes(kubernetesEnv));

That's it! The Kubernetes frontend and backend have now been added to your Backstage app.

Running Backstage locally

Start the frontend and the backend app by running Backstage locally.

Configuration

After installing the plugins in the code, you'll need to then configure them.