Alibaba Cloud provides Workbench and CloudShell. They are browser-based command-line tools that you can use to connect to and manage cluster resources without requiring software installation. After you log on to the Alibaba Cloud Management Console, you can use Workbench or CloudShell in any browser. When a tool starts, Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) automatically loads the cluster's KubeConfig file for the current user.
Workbench: A remote connection tool for Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances. No additional software is required. You can use Workbench to connect to a cluster over the public network or an internal network.
CloudShell: A shell tool provided by Alibaba Cloud. It creates a Linux virtual machine (VM) that is pre-installed with various programming languages and command-line tools. You can use CloudShell to connect to a cluster only over the public network.
To connect over the public network, you must associate an elastic IP address (EIP) with the cluster's API Server to enable public network access. For more information, see Control public access to the API server of an ACK cluster.
The VM created by CloudShell is valid for one hour and is immediately terminated upon expiration. If you do not perform any interactive operations for 30 minutes or you close all session windows, the VM is terminated after 15 minutes. When you start CloudShell again, the system creates a new VM.
Preparations
Before a Resource Access Management (RAM) user can connect to a cluster, you must grant the user the required permissions to manage the cluster. This is in addition to the system permissions required for Container Service. For more information, see Authorization.
Before a RAM user can use CloudShell, the user must be granted the AliyunCloudShellFullAccess permission. To create and attach NAS file systems, the user must also be granted the AliyunNASFullAccess permission. For more information, see Grant permissions to a RAM user.
Procedure
Depending on whether the cluster is accessible over the public network, options to connect to the cluster using Workbench or CloudShell appear in the upper-right corner of the Cluster Information page. Select an option as prompted.
Workbench
Log on to the ACK console. In the left navigation pane, click Clusters.
On the Clusters page, find the target cluster and click its name. In the navigation pane on the left, click Cluster Information.
On the Cluster Information page, click Manage Cluster With Workbench in the upper-right corner.
In the terminal interface, run a kubectl command to verify the connection to the cluster.
For example, the following command queries the namespaces.
kubectl get namespaceExpected output:
NAME STATUS AGE default Active 3h14m kube-node-lease Active 3h14m kube-public Active 3h14m kube-system Active 3h14m
CloudShell
Log on to the ACK console. In the left navigation pane, click Clusters.
On the Clusters page, find the target cluster and click its name. In the navigation pane on the left, click Cluster Information.
On the Cluster Information page, click Manage Cluster With CloudShell in the upper-right corner.
Optional: Click
and then click Mount Storage. Follow the on-screen instructions to create and attach a NAS file system.Associating and mounting a NAS file system lets you persistently store frequently used scripts and files and prevents data loss when the instance is released.
Run a kubectl command to verify the connection to the cluster.
For example, the following command queries the namespaces.
kubectl get namespacesExpected output:
NAME STATUS AGE default Active 3h14m kube-node-lease Active 3h14m kube-public Active 3h14m kube-system Active 3h14m