Gardener Dashboard 1.80: Streamlined Credentials, Enhanced Cluster Views, and Real-Time Updates

  3 minute read  

Gardener Dashboard version 1.80 introduces several significant enhancements aimed at improving user experience, credentials management, and overall operational efficiency. These updates bring more clarity to credential handling, a smoother experience for managing large numbers of clusters, and a move towards a more reactive interface.

Unified and Enhanced Credentials Management

The management of secrets and credentials has been significantly revamped for better clarity and functionality:

  • Introducing CredentialsBindings: The dashboard now fully supports CredentialsBinding resources alongside the existing SecretBinding resources. This allows for referencing both Secrets and, in the future, Workload Identities more explicitly. While CredentialsBindings referencing Workload Identity resources are visible for cluster creation, editing or deleting them via the dashboard is not yet supported.
  • “Credentials” Page: The former “Secrets” page has been renamed to “Credentials.” It features a new “Kind” column and distinct icons to clearly differentiate between SecretBinding and CredentialsBinding types, especially useful when resources share names. The column showing the referenced credential resource name has been removed as this information is part of the binding’s details.
  • Contextual Information and Safeguards: When editing a secret, all its associated data is now displayed, providing better context. If an underlying secret is referenced by multiple bindings, a hint is shown to prevent unintended impacts. Deletion of a binding is prevented if the underlying secret is still in use by another binding.
  • Simplified Creation and Editing: New secrets created via the dashboard will now automatically generate a CredentialsBinding. While existing SecretBindings remain updatable, the creation of new SecretBindings through the dashboard is no longer supported, encouraging the adoption of the more versatile CredentialsBinding. The edit dialog for secrets now pre-fills current data, allowing for easier modification of specific fields.
  • Handling Missing Secrets: The UI now provides clear information and guidance if a CredentialsBinding or SecretBinding references a secret that no longer exists.

Revamped Cluster List for Improved Scalability

Navigating and managing a large number of clusters is now more efficient:

  • Virtual Scrolling: The cluster list has adopted virtual scrolling. Rows are rendered dynamically as you scroll, replacing the previous pagination system. This significantly improves performance and provides a smoother browsing experience, especially for environments with hundreds or thousands of clusters.
  • Optimized Row Display: The height of individual rows in the cluster list has been reduced, allowing more clusters to be visible on the screen at once. Additionally, expandable content within a row (like worker details or ticket labels) now has a maximum height with internal scrolling, ensuring consistent row sizes and smooth virtual scrolling performance.

Real-Time Updates for Projects

The dashboard is becoming more dynamic with the introduction of real-time updates:

  • Instant Project Changes: Modifications to projects, such as creation or deletion, are now reflected instantly in the project list and interface without requiring a page reload. This is achieved through WebSocket communication.
  • Foundation for Future Reactivity: This enhancement for projects lays the groundwork for bringing real-time updates to other resources within the dashboard, such as Seeds and the Garden resource, in future releases.

Other Notable Enhancements

  • Kubeconfig Update: The kubeconfig generated for garden cluster access via the “Account” page now uses the --oidc-pkce-method flag, replacing the deprecated --oidc-use-pkce flag. Users encountering deprecation messages should redownload their kubeconfig.
  • Notification Behavior: Kubernetes warning notifications are now automatically dismissed after 5 seconds. However, all notifications will remain visible as long as the mouse cursor is hovering over them, giving users more time to read important messages.
  • API Server URL Path: Support has been added for kubeconfigs that include a path in the API server URL.

These updates in Gardener Dashboard 1.80 collectively enhance usability, provide better control over credentials, and improve performance for large-scale operations.

For a comprehensive list of all features, bug fixes, and contributor acknowledgments, please refer to the official release notes. You can also view the segment of the community call discussing these dashboard updates here.