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 set up 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.
yarn --cwd packages/app 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.
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 refreshIntervalMs={30000} />
</EntityLayout.Route>
</EntityLayout>
);
The optional refreshIntervalMs
property on the EntityKubernetesContent
defines the interval in which the content automatically refreshes, if not set this will default to 10 seconds.
That's it! But now, we need the Kubernetes Backend plugin for the frontend to work.
Adding Kubernetes Backend plugin
First, we need to add the backend package:
yarn --cwd packages/backend add @backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend
Then add it to your backend index.ts
file:
const backend = createBackend();
// Other plugins...
backend.add(import('@backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend'));
backend.start();
That's it! The Kubernetes frontend and backend have now been added to your Backstage app.
Custom cluster discovery
If either existing cluster locators don't work for your use-case, it is possible to implement a custom KubernetesClustersSupplier.
Here's a very simplified example:
import { createBackend } from '@backstage/backend-defaults';
import { createBackendModule } from '@backstage/backend-plugin-api';
import { Duration } from 'luxon';
import {
ClusterDetails,
KubernetesClustersSupplier,
kubernetesClusterSupplierExtensionPoint,
} from '@backstage/plugin-kubernetes-node';
export class CustomClustersSupplier implements KubernetesClustersSupplier {
constructor(private clusterDetails: ClusterDetails[] = []) {}
static create(refreshInterval: Duration) {
const clusterSupplier = new CustomClustersSupplier();
// setup refresh, e.g. using a copy of https://github.com/backstage/backstage/blob/master/plugins/kubernetes-backend/src/service/runPeriodically.ts
runPeriodically(
() => clusterSupplier.refreshClusters(),
refreshInterval.toMillis(),
);
return clusterSupplier;
}
async refreshClusters(): Promise<void> {
this.clusterDetails = []; // fetch from somewhere
}
async getClusters(): Promise<ClusterDetails[]> {
return this.clusterDetails;
}
}
const backend = createBackend();
export const kubernetesModuleCustomClusterDiscovery = createBackendModule({
pluginId: 'kubernetes',
moduleId: 'custom-cluster-discovery',
register(env) {
env.registerInit({
deps: {
kubernetes: kubernetesClusterSupplierExtensionPoint,
},
async init({ kubernetes }) {
kubernetes.addClusterSupplier(
CustomClustersSupplier.create(Duration.fromObject({ minutes: 60 })),
);
},
});
},
});
// Other plugins...
backend.add(import('@backstage/plugin-kubernetes-backend'));
backend.add(kubernetesModuleCustomClusterDiscovery);
backend.start();
This example uses items from the @backstage/plugin-kubernetes-node
and luxon
packages, you'll need to add those for this example to work as is.
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.