SkippBox takes Kubernetes mobile with launch of Cabin

SkippBox a provider of platforms for deployment and lifecycle management of cloud-native applications, has launched a mobile app for container orchestration system, Kubernetes. Dubbed as Cabin, the mobile app is available on the Apple App Store, and offers microservices application developers and Cloud system operators the opportunity to manage Kubernetes clusters via their mobile devices. An Android version of Cabin is currently in development. “With its key primitives for building distributed applications, Kubernetes is emerging as the standard for container orchestration,” said Sebastien Goasguen, Founder, Skippbox. “We created Cabin so developers can manage Kubernetes applications on-the-go with interactions that exhibit the full strength of Kubernetes.” According to the London-based company, Cabin can view Kubernetes resources such as the standard pods, services and deployments, but also/as well as ingress rules, Replica Sets, secrets, and volumes. With the app, users can quickly manage Kubernetes applications with easy scaling of deployments, execute commands in containers, access logs, and even add or delete labels.

Key features include:

• Create basic deployments with single container image
• Scale deployments and replication controllers
• Expose deployments via services
• Remove and add labels
• Access logs in multiple containers
• Execute commands in containers
• Switch service types
• Open NodePort services in browser

Applications can be scaled by moving a slider, rolling-updates can be triggered by specifying new container images, and for quick debugging you can access the logs and run a command in a container. “We wanted to make it even easier for people to use their Kubernetes clusters and benefit from the powerful API driving them. With Cabin, application deployments, rolling updates and debugging can be done quickly,” added Goasguen. In addition, Cabin provides an alpha preview, support for Helm, the Kubernetes package manager. With Cabin, users can view a Helm repository or point to their own: Cabin will automatically setup Helm if it is not present, and users will be able to use it from their local machines. “We added a preview that we are really excited about, the integration with Helm the Kubernetes package manager, which will give users a one touch application deployment from a marketplace” added Goasguen. “Complex applications are being packaged using Helm but deployment will be as simple as pressing an icon.” Skippbox is planning additional features for Cabin such as Kubernetes cluster provisioning by partnering with public Cloud providers, and an enterprise version that can be run on-premise. Besides Cabin, SkippBox offers kmachine (an Open Source Kubernetes tool that helps developers create a standalone single node Kubernetes instance in public clouds); CloudStack Container Service (a Container-as-a-Service solution that combines the power of Apache CloudStack and Kubernetes); and kompose (a Kubernetes tool that meets Docker users where they are and ease their migration to Kubernetes).