Tekton Dashboard extensions

This guide explains what Tekton Dashboard extensions are and how to manage them. It covers the following topics:

Before you begin

Tekton Dashboard Extensions are currently alpha and are considered experimental. This means things could change at any time.

Resource based extensions

Resource based extensions provide a simple and easy way to list and view resources inside a cluster. They are deployed as Extension resources and the Dashboard will generate UI to display the chosen resources.

Using them requires two steps (see an example below):

  1. create an Extension resource in your cluster
  2. add RBAC rules to the Tekton Dashboard service account to allow it access to the target resources

See the Example: Register a CronJob extension below for a working example.

Extension CRD (apiVersion: dashboard.tekton.dev/v1alpha1)

Extension

Variable Name Type Required Default Description
metav1.TypeMeta Yes -
metadata metav1.ObjectMeta No -
spec ExtensionSpec Yes - Extension spec

ExtensionSpec

Variable Name Type Required Default Description
apiVersion string Yes - Extension resource group
name string Yes - Extension resource name
displayname string Yes - Display name in the Dashboard UI
namespaced boolean No true Specifies whether the Extension represents a namespaced resource

Example: Register a CronJob extension

To create an Extension resource for CronJobs run the following command:

kubectl apply -n tekton-pipelines -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: dashboard.tekton.dev/v1alpha1
kind: Extension
metadata:
  name: cronjobs
spec:
  apiVersion: batch/v1
  name: cronjobs
  displayname: k8s cronjobs
EOF

This adds a new item in the side nav of the Dashboard.

Clicking on it will show an error though, you need to allow the Tekton Dashboard service account to access cronjobs in your cluster. See next step to learn how you can easily extend RBAC rules of the service account.

Example: Extend Tekton Dashboard service account permissions

Extending the Tekton Dashboard service account can be done easily using ClusterRole aggregation. To support this method the Dashboard must be installed with the --extensions-rbac flag to ensure that the aggregationRule is correctly configured.

Create a ClusterRole with the necessary permissions and the label rbac.dashboard.tekton.dev/aggregate-to-dashboard: "true".

To add the necessary permissions for your cronjobs extension to work, run the following command:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
kind: ClusterRole
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: tekton-dashboard-cronjobs-extension
  labels:
    rbac.dashboard.tekton.dev/aggregate-to-dashboard: "true"
rules:
  - apiGroups: ["batch"]
    resources: ["cronjobs"]
    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
EOF

Alternatively, if the --extensions-rbac is not used, omit the label from the ClusterRole, and define the appropriate RoleBinding or ClusterRoleBinding yourself with the subject set to the tekton-dashboard service account.

Now the Tekton Dashboard will show CronJobs in your cluster.

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