KevsRobots Learning Platform
Running K3s on Raspberry Pi
45% Percent Complete
Introduction
Preparing Your Raspberry Pi Cluster
Installing K3s
Using Your K3s Cluster
Real-World Deployments
Advanced Topics
Final Project
Summary
Dashboard and Monitoring
Learn how to deploy the Kubernetes Dashboard, access metrics, and monitor your K3s cluster using lightweight tools.
By Kevin McAleer, 2 Minutes
Page last updated May 24, 2025
A running K3s cluster is great — but to manage it effectively, you’ll want visibility into its health and performance.
This lesson covers how to deploy the Kubernetes Dashboard, add basic metrics monitoring, and explore other lightweight observability tools that work well on Raspberry Pi.
🧭 Option 1: Kubernetes Dashboard
🔹 Step 1: Deploy the Dashboard
Apply the official YAML:
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/dashboard/v2.7.0/aio/deploy/recommended.yaml
This deploys:
- The Dashboard UI
- Metrics scrapers
- Required roles
🔹 Step 2: Create Admin User
Create a file dashboard-admin.yaml:
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
name: admin-user
namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
name: admin-user
roleRef:
apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
kind: ClusterRole
name: cluster-admin
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
name: admin-user
namespace: kubernetes-dashboard
Apply it:
kubectl apply -f dashboard-admin.yaml
🔹 Step 3: Access the Dashboard
Start the proxy:
kubectl proxy
Then open:
http://localhost:8001/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/https:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/
To get your token:
kubectl -n kubernetes-dashboard create token admin-user
Paste the token into the login screen.
📊 Option 2: Metrics Server (Optional for K3s)
K3s includes a built-in lightweight metrics server, but if not available:
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/metrics-server/releases/latest/download/components.yaml
Check node metrics:
kubectl top nodes
kubectl top pods
🧩 Other Lightweight Monitoring Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| KubeView | Visualize pods, nodes, and namespaces |
| k9s | Terminal UI for Kubernetes |
| Grafana + Prometheus | Full monitoring stack (heavier) |
| Lens | Powerful GUI app for remote clusters |
🧠 Tip: For Raspberry Pi, prioritize tools with low memory footprint.
🧪 Verifying Everything Works
- Open Dashboard and view cluster state
- Check
kubectl top nodesfor metrics - View logs and usage graphs for a running pod
✅ Summary
You now know how to:
- Deploy and access the Kubernetes Dashboard
- Use admin tokens for secure access
- Monitor basic metrics from your cluster
- Explore other lightweight tools for deeper insights
Next up: Storage and Volumes
You can use the arrows ← → on your keyboard to navigate between lessons.
Comments