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Getting Started

Accessing private Kubernetes clusters can be challenging, especially when connecting from remote locations or having multiple clusters to manage. NetBird Kubernetes operator simplifies this process by enabling secure access to your Kubernetes clusters using custom resource configurations and annotations to expose your cluster and services in your NetBird network.

The NetBird Kubernetes operator automatically creates Networks and Resources in your NetBird account, allowing you to seamlessly access your Kubernetes services and control plane from your NetBird network.

For the mental model — see How Routing Peers Work — Requirements.

Prerequisites

  • Access to a Kubernetes cluster.
  • Kubectl and Helm installed locally.

Steps

Install cert-manager, it is recommended so the Kubernetes API can communicate with the operator's admission webhooks. Skip this step if you already have cert-manager installed.

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.17.0/cert-manager.yaml

Create the NetBird namespace and API secret. The operator needs a NetBird personal access token to authenticate with the NetBird Management API. You can create a PAT by following the steps here.

kubectl create namespace netbird
kubectl -n netbird create secret generic netbird-mgmt-api-key --from-literal=NB_API_KEY=${NB_API_KEY}

Install the NetBird operator.

helm upgrade --install --create-namespace -n netbird netbird-operator oci://ghcr.io/netbirdio/helm-charts/netbird-operator

Verify the installation by checking the operator pod.

kubectl get pods -n netbird

All pods should be in a Running state before continuing.

NAME                               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
netbird-operator-b74984867-d68c8   1/1     Running   0          98s