How To Proxy Remote Kubernetes Core APIs to Local Laptop Browser

Requirement:

   Sometimes we need to check and verify Kubernetes Core APIs as well as the objects we created in K8S. It would be convenient for Admin to access the full list of Kubernetes Core APIs and Customer created objects from local laptop browser.

Solution:

2 options:

Option 1:

• We can start kubectl proxy in remote K8S master or worker nodes where kubectl has been set and used to access K8S API server.  ie (remote node) $ kubectl proxy --proxy=8080 &
• We can use ssh tunnel to access it from local laptop.   I prefer git bash ssh command. Putty sometimes can't establish the connection.
• run below in git bash locally  $ ssh -oIdentityFile=/d/OCI-VM-PrivateKey.txt -L 8080:127.0.0.1:8080 opc@<remote node ip address>
• Then we can access K8S API  in your local browser  :  http://localhost:8080/apis

Option 2:

• We can start kubectl proxy locally in your laptop, no need ssh tunnel   ie (local laptop) $ kubectl proxy --port=8080 &
• However you need to setup local kubectl to access remote K8S API. Things we need to pay attention to are below
• The firewall port is open from your local laptop to remote K8S API service. ie we have we have K8S API listen on port 6443, 6443 needs to be open
• Copy  ~/.kube/config file to local laptop  ~/.kube  . This config file has crtitical key info, it should be put in safe place and not used by others. Local kubectl uses this config file to communicate with remote K8S API server. In theory , we can fully control the remote K8S cluster anywhere as long as we have this config file. Please refer official Oracle OCI doc
• Then we can access K8S API  in your local browser  :  http://localhost:8080/apis