The Kubernetes WebUI is assigned as http://<kubernetes master>/ui. However, it is not launched by default, instead there are YAML files in the release binary.

Access to Kubernetes master/ui page

Let's download a release binary and launch the WebUI:

//Download a release binary
$ curl -L -O https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/releases/download/v1.1.4/kubernetes.tar.gz

//extract the binary
$ tar zxf kubernetes.tar.gz
//WebUI YAML file is under the cluster/addons/kube-ui directory 
$ cd kubernetes/cluster/addons/kube-ui/
$ ls
kube-ui-rc.yaml    kube-ui-svc.yaml

Let's launch the kube-ui replication controller and service:

# kubectl create -f kube-ui-rc.yaml 
replicationcontroller "kube-ui-v2" created

# kubectl create -f kube-ui-svc.yaml 
service "kube-ui" created

Note that kube-ui-svc is a type of ClusterIP service; however, it is associated with Kubernetes master (/ui). You can access, from the outside, the Kubernetes network at http://<kubernetes master>/ui.

Launching the kube-ui/ui shows the dashboard screen

The kube-ui replication controller accesses the API Server to get the Kubernetes cluster information same as the kubectl command, though read-only. However, it is useful for navigating Kubernetes' status and is easier to explore than the kubectl command.

The following screenshot is an Explore page that shows pod, replication controller, and service instances:

On clicking on one of the instances, it shows detailed information, as shown in the following screenshot. It shows a service, which indicates port, node port, and selectors. It is easy to find an associated replication controller and pods:

Additionally, UI can also show events, as follows:

This recipe described how to launch a web interface that will help in easily exploring Kubernetes instances, such as pods, replication controllers, and services without the kubectl command. Please refer to following recipes on how to get detailed information via the kubectl command.