Disable the Kubernetes Dashboard in AKS using the CLI

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I have been playing around with AKS a bit now and recently came across the ability to disable the Kubernetes dashboard in AKS using the preview extension. I am not too sure when the CLI extension will be out of preview, but I am sure the same command will work.

If like me, you only use the CLI to manage Kubernetes and you want to remove what some say is a security issue then this command is for you.

The command

az aks disable-addons --addons kube-dashboard --resource-group pixel-aks--name pixel-aks --verbose

Just make sure you change the command to your resource group and your AKS name.

But wait!

But before we run the command, let’s have a look at the kube-system namespace.

If you are not sure how to do that then use the following command.

kubectl get deployments --namespace kube-system

As you can see we have a deployment called kubernetes-dashboard.

If you then run the first command to disable the dashboard.

Now, if you run the kubectl get command again you will see the deployment kubernetes-dashboard has gone.

Oh no, I need the dashboard after all

No fear, you can easily add the dashboard back by using the following command.

az aks enable-addons --addons kube-dashboard --resource-group pixel-aks--name pixel-aks --verbose

After that command completes you will have the dashboard back!

All in all

I hope you found this article helpful. I think this is a cool new feature that is coming to AKS. And can be a good way to help you manage kubernetes addons like the Azure monitoring agent.

If you have any questions please reach out.