Quickstart

This guide takes you from an empty cluster to a visualized connectivity graph in four steps. It should take about ten minutes.

Prerequisites

• A running Kubernetes cluster (v1.11.3+) and kubectl configured to talk to it. A local kind or minikube cluster is fine.
• Permission to create namespaces, CRDs, and deployments (cluster-admin during evaluation is simplest).

1. Install Kubesonde

Grab the latest kubesonde.yaml installer manifest from the releases page and apply it:

kubectl apply -f kubesonde.yaml

This creates the kubesonde-system namespace, the Kubesonde CRDs, and the controller that runs the probes. It also deploys the frontend UI alongside the controller.

2. Create a Kubesonde resource

Once the controller is running, create a Kubesonde resource that describes what to probe. This example targets every pod in the default namespace:

# probe.yaml
apiVersion: security.kubesonde.io/v1
kind: Kubesonde
metadata:
  name: kubesonde-sample
spec:
  namespace: default
  probe: all

Apply it:

kubectl apply -f probe.yaml

The controller starts probing the target namespace. Watch progress — including whether probing has quiesced — with:

kubectl get kubesondes

NAME                 NAMESPACE   PROBES   COMPLETE   AGE
kubesonde-sample     default     228      true       5m

3. Fetch the results

Wait for the Complete condition before fetching, so you don't read empty or partial data:

kubectl wait --for=condition=Complete kubesonde/kubesonde-sample --timeout=300s

Then port-forward the controller and download the recorded probes:

kubectl --namespace kubesonde-system \
  port-forward deployment.apps/kubesonde-controller-manager 2709 &
curl localhost:2709/probes > probes.json

WARNING

Fetching results immediately after applying the resource may return empty or incomplete data. Wait for the Complete condition (or a few minutes, depending on the number of pods). See Probe completeness for why.

4. Visualize

The installer deploys the Kubesonde frontend inside the cluster. Port-forward the frontend service and the controller (the UI reads from localhost:2709), then open the UI:

kubectl --namespace kubesonde-system \
  port-forward service/kubesonde-frontend 8088:8088 &
kubectl --namespace kubesonde-system \
  port-forward deployment.apps/kubesonde-controller-manager 2709:2709 &

Browse to http://localhost:8088.

Alternatively, upload the probes.json you exported to the hosted Kubesonde website to explore the connectivity graph.

Clean up

kubectl delete -f probe.yaml     # remove the scanner
kubectl delete -f kubesonde.yaml # remove the controller and CRDs