Use the KOTS administration console UI

The Kubernetes Off-The-Shelf (KOTS) Admin UI provides a user interface to manage the Mission Control installation. It handles Mission Control configuration, licensing, and upgrades. You can use the kots kubectl plugin to open the KOTS admin interface.

The KOTS Admin Console and Mission Control UI use separate authentication systems. The KOTS Admin Console (accessed through local proxy on port 8800 or through Ingress) manages the Mission Control installation, configuration, licensing, and upgrades, while the Mission Control UI (accessed through Ingress) provides the database management interface for cluster operations.

You can change Mission Control UI passwords through KOTS. After you make changes, restart the Dex pod to apply them.

Prerequisites

You need the following:

A downloaded Mission Control license file.

Mission Control requires a license file to provide Kubernetes Off-The-Shelf (KOTS) or Helm with required information for installation. Information includes customer identifiers, software update channels, and entitlements.

Contact your sales representative or call 888-746-7426 to request a license.

If you need a replacement license file or a non-community edition, or want to convert your Public Preview license to use a stable channel release version, contact your account team.
kotsadm installed in your environment. See the Preparing the Environment steps for Kubernetes based installations.

Access the KOTS admin UI

You can access the KOTS admin UI using either a local proxy or Kubernetes Ingress for remote access.

Local proxy
Ingress (remote access)

To configure a local proxy through which to open the Admin Console, do the following:

Run this command on a system with kubectl access to your cluster:
```
kubectl kots admin-console -n NAMESPACE
```
Replace NAMESPACE with the namespace value you specified during installation. The default is mission-control.

When you run the kubectl command, it opens localhost port 8800 and forwards to the kotsadm service.
Optional: Use the --port flag to specify an alternate port. See the Replicated documentation for flag details.
Open a web browser to http://localhost:8800. This opens the Admin Console.

The system prompts you for your license file the first time you authenticate with the KOTS admin interface during installation. The system doesn’t prompt you for license information when you re-open the KOTS admin interface for Mission Control management operations, such as adding a node.
Type Control+C to exit the proxy when finished.

For remote access to the KOTS admin console, configure a Kubernetes Ingress resource.

Expose the KOTS admin console through Ingress with the appropriate security measures, including:

Strong authentication
TLS encryption
Network policies or firewall rules to restrict access
Regular security audits

Create an Ingress resource for the KOTS admin console:

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: kotsadm-ingress
  namespace: mission-control
  annotations:
    # Add annotations specific to your Ingress controller
    # Example for NGINX:
    # nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: "true"
    # nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/backend-protocol: "HTTP"
spec:
  ingressClassName: nginx  # Adjust based on your Ingress controller
  tls:
  - hosts:
    - KOTS_ADMIN_HOSTNAME
    secretName: kotsadm-tls
  rules:
  - host: KOTS_ADMIN_HOSTNAME
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: kotsadm
            port:
              number: 3000

Replace KOTS_ADMIN_HOSTNAME with the hostname you want to use. For example, kots-admin.example.com.

Apply the Ingress configuration:
```
kubectl apply -f kotsadm-ingress.yaml
```
Access the Admin Console in a web browser:

https://KOTS_ADMIN_HOSTNAME/

Replace KOTS_ADMIN_HOSTNAME with the hostname you configure.

Use the KOTS administration console UI

Prerequisites

Access the KOTS admin UI

Was this helpful?

Give Feedback