Cluster Resources

Overview

In order to provide advanced functionality that isn’t available in the Kubernetes API, Kubetail provides a set of tools that you can run inside your cluster to allow the Dashboard to perform low-level, read-only operations on your log files such as reading their sizes and monitoring them for changes.

The main tool that Kubetail uses to accomplish this is the Kubetail Cluster Agent which is a lightweight executable that runs on each node in your cluster and performs read-only file operations on behalf of the Kubetail application. Sitting in front of the agents is an instance of the Kubetail Cluster API server which acts as a single entry point for the Dashboard to communicate with the agents easily. A deployment of the Kubetail’s cluster resources under a typical workload will use:

When you install Kubetail in a cluster the tools are enabled by default but if you’re running Kubetail on your desktop you’ll have to install them separately.

Install

To install Kubetail cluster resources using the Kubetail CLI, you can use this command:

kubetail cluster install

The CLI tool will use your kubeconfig credentials to connect to your cluster so just switch your default context to install them in a different cluster.

You can also install the cluster resources from the Dashboard GUI see here.

Upgrade

To upgrade, you can use these commands:

kubetail cluster repo update
kubetail cluster upgrade

Uninstall

To uninstall, you can use this command:

kubetail cluster uninstall

Remove Repo

To remove the Kubetail Helm repository from your system you can use this command:

kubetail cluster repo remove

Next Steps

Under the hood, Kubetail uses Helm  to install the Kubetail cluster resources so you can also manage your releases using that tool as well:

$ helm list -n kubetail-system
NAME    	NAMESPACE      	REVISION	UPDATED                             	STATUS  	CHART         	APP VERSION
kubetail	kubetail-system	2       	2025-02-06 10:09:04.849465 +0300 +03	deployed	kubetail-0.9.3	0.9.2