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Manage an SCK project

You can manage your project and the Kubernetes clusters that belong to your project using the KKP Dashboard. This page provides an overview of the individual project tabs.

If you access the KKP Dashboard via the Switch Cloud Portal, you will be taken to a specific project view — in that case, the Project Overview tab is your starting point.

However, if you navigate to https://sck.cloud.switch.ch directly, you will first see a list of projects you have access to. Select a project to open the Project Overview tab.

Tip

You might want to change the project landing page to Clusters. To do so, click the user icon in the top-right corner, select User Settings, and set the Project Landing Page to Clusters.

Project Overview

The Project Overview tab is the main entry point from the Switch Cloud Portal. It offers a high-level summary of the project status, including number of clusters, cluster templates, etcd backups, SSH keys and service accounts.

You can use the Create Resource button to quickly start creating clusters, cluster templates, automatic backups, and snapshots.

The Clusters table displays the list of your clusters, their state and machines deployed. Click on a row to access detailed dashboards for each cluster or use the Show All Clusters button to navigate to the Resources > Clusters tab to view a more detailed clusters table.

The Cluster Distribution pie chart shows distribution of clusters by provider. Currently, all clusters are deployed on Switch Cloud Compute, which is powered by OpenStack.

The Access tile displays a list of project members and groups. Click Show All Members to navigate to the Access > Members tab to manage members.

Resources > Clusters

Here you will see a more detailed Clusters table than in the Project Overview tab. You can see what region the cluster was created in, what the control plane version is, and how long it has been running.

Click Create Cluster or Create Clusters From Template to create a cluster either from scratch or using a cluster template. See Create Cluster page for step-by-step guidance.

Click on a row to access detailed dashboards for each cluster where you can view more detailed cluster information, manage machine deployments, and see the status of individual nodes. You may also download the kubeconfig file, open the Web Terminal or access the Kubernetes Dashboard (sometimes called the in-cluster dashboard), which is a web-based UI that runs inside your Kubernetes cluster.

Cluster Templates

This tab gives you an overview of the available cluster templates. A cluster template is an object that can be used to create multiple clusters with the same configuration. You can create a cluster once and then easily replicate it afterwards. Each cluster created with a template is completely independent from all other clusters created with the same template.

For details on how to create a cluster template, see the Create Cluster page.

Important

Cluster templates include a specific Kubernetes control plane version at the time they are created. When you use a template to create a new cluster, that version will be applied. To avoid deploying outdated or unsupported versions, make sure to regularly update your templates to the latest supported Kubernetes version. Similarly, all other template options should be checked for compatibility.

etcd Backups

This tab gives you the possibility to manage etcd backups. etcd is the central key-value store used by Kubernetes to manage cluster state and configuration. Backups are essential for cluster restoration.

Restoring a snapshot reverts the cluster's configuration to the state it was in at the time the snapshot was taken. This includes all Kubernetes objects stored in etcd, such as deployments, services, and access control settings — but not application data or volume contents.

  • The cluster retains its original ID.

  • Any changes made after the snapshot was taken will be lost — including infrastructure changes.

  • It does not create a new cluster.

Note

If infrastructure resources (for example, additional nodes or volumes) were added after the snapshot was taken, they may not be reflected in the restored cluster state. These resources might need to be rejoined or cleaned up manually.

The restore process replaces the etcd database with the selected snapshot.

Warning

etcd backups only include the Kubernetes cluster state (configuration, workloads, and metadata). They do not back up data stored on persistent volumes or capture the full state of worker nodes. For application data or full system recovery, use separate volume snapshot tools.

Automatic Backups

By default, automatic backups are created every 20 minutes for each of your clusters and the total number of stored backups for each cluster is 20. Once the number is reached the oldest backup will be deleted to make room for the newest. To view the stored backups click on a row in the Automatic Backups table. You will see the list of etcd backups. To restore a cluster from a specific backup click the Restore icon far right in a given row.

You may add custom automatic backups using the Add Automatic Backup button. You may delete a custom automatic backup by clicking the trash icon on the far right of the row.

Warning

Please do not modify or delete the default automatic backup. It is essential for ensuring reliable recovery and ongoing cluster stability.

Snapshots

You may also create one-time backup snapshots, they are set up similarly to the automatic ones, with the difference that they do not have a schedule or keep count set.

Tip

Switch recommends taking a backup snapshot before performing major upgrades or configuration changes.

Click Add Snapshot to create a new snapshot manually. To delete a snapshot click the trash icon on the far right in a given row of the Snapshots table.

To restore a cluster from a specific backup click the relevant row in the Snapshots table and click the Restore icon far right in the etcd Backups tile.

Restore

This tab shows a list of etcd restore operations performed for your project. You can delete restore entries using the trash icon in the far-right column, but note that this only removes the entry from the table — it does not affect the cluster.

Access

This tab allows you to manage SSH keys, members, groups and service accounts. Read more on this topic in Access Control.