Kubernetes on Karios

Karios offers Kubernetes in two forms, shown side by side as cards on the same Kubernetes dashboard: fully managed k8s, and lightweight, self-managed k3s. This page covers how to reach the dashboard and who can access it; each option has its own full guide.

Overview

k8s and k3s on Karios

Option

What it is

Choose it when

k8s

Fully managed Kubernetes. Karios provisions the control-plane and worker VMs, installs Kubernetes, and runs the control plane for you.

You want a production-grade cluster with high availability, autoscaling, and built-in cluster tests.

k3s

A lightweight, self-managed Kubernetes distribution you run yourself.

You want a small, low-overhead cluster for development, edge, or lightweight production.

How to access Kubernetes

  1. Sign in to Control Center (the Karios web console).

  2. Open Kubernetes from the left sidebar.

  3. The Kubernetes dashboard opens with two cards, Kubernetes (k8s) and k3s. Continue to K8s on Karios or k3s on Karios for the full walkthrough of either.

Kubernetes dashboard showing the k8s and k3s cards

What you’ll see in the screenshot above:

A freshly deployed zone: both cards read Not initialized with a Setup required badge and an Initialize Kubernetes (k8s) / Initialize k3s action. Once a card is initialized, the badge changes to Ready and it instead shows Clusters / Control nodes / Worker nodes counts with View clusters / Create cluster actions.

Who can access it (RBAC)

Access to Kubernetes is governed by role-based access control (RBAC): your Karios role must carry Kubernetes permissions.

Karios has separate permissions for the two cluster types, K8s and K3s, plus Node permissions that cover both.

To view clusters, your role needs either:

  • Node View - covers both K8s and K3s clusters, or

  • K8s View and K3s View

To create, manage, delete, or scale clusters, add either:

  • Node Manage - covers both, or

  • K8s Manage and K3s Manage

Manage does not include View. A role that manages clusters must also carry the matching View permission, or the Kubernetes pages will not open.

These are typically carried by the DevOps and Admin roles. If the Kubernetes sidebar item or a card is missing, your role does not have Kubernetes access yet - ask an administrator to enable it.

See also

Before creating clusters:

→ Next: K8s on Karios