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Kubernetes Service

Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerised applications. Switch Cloud Kubernetes is powered by the Kubermatic Kubernetes Platform (KKP) and leverages Switch Cloud Compute as its underlying infrastructure.

Important

The Portal provides a limited set of actions for managing the Kubernetes service. To create, update, or delete clusters, or to perform other advanced operations, use the KKP Dashboard.

Provision and Use the Kubernetes Service

When you activate the Kubernetes service for your project, the following tasks are performed:

  1. Compute Service Activation:
    • If the Compute service is already activated, the Kubernetes service will link to it automatically.
    • If not, the Compute service gets activated.
  2. Credentials and Preset Generation:
    • The link between Compute and Kubernetes is enabled by a provider preset, which stores the necessary authentication data for your OpenStack project.
  3. Service Interface in the Portal:
    • Once provisioned, the Kubernetes service page becomes available. From here you can navigate through the following tabs:

Authorisation

Manage Memberships

All project members are automatically added as Kubernetes members in the Editors group when the Kubernetes service is activated.

In the Authorisation tab:

  • You can view the Kubernetes members.
  • You can edit a member’s group (Owners,Editors, Viewers) or remove their permissions completely.
  • A project member without permissions still appears in the list and can be re-assigned permissions.

Only users with project-level membership can be managed in the Kubernetes member table.

Cluster Management

View Clusters

In the Cluster Management tab, you can view a list of Kubernetes clusters associated with the project. This view is read-only from the Portal.

Each entry in the table shows:

  • Cluster Name
  • Phase (e.g. Running)
  • Labels
  • Control plane version
  • Actions (when applicable)

Note

All cluster lifecycle operations — including creation, deletion, and scaling — must be performed in the KKP Dashboard.

Details

View Project Details

The Details tab shows key information about your Kubernetes service instance:

  • Project name
  • Status (e.g., Active)
  • Created and updated timestamps
  • UID (unique identifier of the instance)

A link icon next to the page title indicates that the Kubernetes instance is linked to a Compute service.Hovering over the icon reveals the name of the provider preset used for the connection and clicking on it navigates you to the corresponding compute service

Access the KKP Dashboard

Many operations (such as creating or deleting clusters) must be done in the KKP Dashboard. You can access it: