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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 guide.

Adding the Kubernetes frontend plugin

The first step is to add the Kubernetes frontend 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.

# From your Backstage root directory
cd packages/app
yarn add @backstage/plugin-kubernetes

Once the package has been installed, you need to import the plugin in your app by adding the "Kubernetes" tab to the respective catalog pages.

// In packages/app/src/components/catalog/EntityPage.tsx
import { EntityKubernetesContent } from '@backstage/plugin-kubernetes';

// You can add the tab to any number of pages, the service page is shown as an
// example here
const serviceEntityPage = (
  <EntityLayout>
    {/* other tabs... */}
    <EntityLayout.Route path="/kubernetes" title="Kubernetes">
      <EntityKubernetesContent />
    </EntityLayout.Route>

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.

# From your Backstage root directory
cd packages/backend
yarn add @backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend

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

// In packages/backend/src/plugins/kubernetes.ts
import { KubernetesBuilder } from '@backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend';
import { PluginEnvironment } from '../types';

export default async function createPlugin({
  logger,
  config,
}: PluginEnvironment) {
  const { router } = await KubernetesBuilder.createBuilder({
    logger,
    config,
  }).build();
  return router;
}

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.

// In packages/backend/src/index.ts
import kubernetes from './plugins/kubernetes';
// ...
async function main() {
  // ...
  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.

Troubleshooting

After installing the plugins in the code, if the Kubernetes information is not showing up, you'll need to troubleshoot it.