Administration

• 1: Cluster Management
• 2: User Management
• 3: Registry Management
• 4: Provider Configuration
• 5: Elasticsearch Management

Admin creates Group
      │
      ├── Assigns Clusters (target-1, target-2, ...)
      ├── Assigns Permissions (View, Run, Cancel)
      └── Assigns Registry Visibility
            │
            └── Users in this group inherit everything

1 - Cluster Management

Cluster Management Admin

Register target Kubernetes clusters that will be available for chaos scenario execution. The operator runs on a control plane cluster and executes scenarios against registered targets — it never runs chaos against itself.

Operations

Once registered, clusters become available for assignment to groups through User Management.

2 - User Management

User Management Admin

Organize users through groups that define cluster access and permissions. The group is the central unit of the permission model — users inherit all capabilities from their assigned group.

Groups

A group defines what its members can access and do on the platform.

Groups also receive permission flags that control what operations their members can perform:

Users

Users are created and assigned to a group during creation.

Permission Cascade

Group "SRE Team"
  ├── Clusters: production-us, production-eu
  ├── Permissions: View, Run
  └── Members: alice, bob
        │
        ├── alice → can run scenarios on production-us, production-eu
        └── bob   → can run scenarios on production-us, production-eu

3 - Registry Management

Registry Management Admin

Configure private container registries for chaos scenario images and control which groups can access them. By default, scenarios are pulled from the public Quay.io registry. Private registries enable air-gapped deployments and custom scenario images.

Creating a Private Registry

Configure a private registry by providing its connection settings (URL, credentials, TLS configuration).

Visibility

Each registry has a visibility setting that controls who can use it:

Impact on Scenario Selection

When a user selects a private registry during scenario execution, only the scenarios that have been mirrored to that registry will be available. Scenarios not present in the private registry will not appear in the selection list.

4 - Provider Configuration

Provider Configuration Admin

Configure target providers that integrate with external cluster management platforms. The provider configuration interface adapts dynamically based on the selected provider.

Supported Providers

Cloud Provider Configuration

Some chaos scenarios interact directly with cloud infrastructure and require cloud provider credentials (AWS, GCP, Azure, OpenStack, etc.) to perform node-level operations. The following scenarios are not currently available in Krkn Operator until cloud provider configuration support is added:

5 - Elasticsearch Management

Elasticsearch Management Admin

Administrators can configure and save Elasticsearch endpoints that users can reference when executing chaos scenarios. This enables centralized observability configuration without requiring users to manually enter connection details.

Overview

Elasticsearch integration allows krkn scenarios to index execution metrics, logs, and telemetry data for analysis and historical tracking. Instead of requiring each user to configure Elasticsearch details manually, admins can:

• Pre-configure Elasticsearch endpoints with connection details
• Save named configurations for reuse across all scenarios
• Control which Elasticsearch endpoints are available platform-wide

Users can then select from the saved Elasticsearch configurations when setting global parameters during scenario execution.

Adding an Elasticsearch Endpoint

1. Navigate to Administration > Elasticsearch Management
2. Click Add Elasticsearch
3. Configure the following details:

4. Click Save to add the configuration to the saved list

Managing Saved Configurations

View Saved Elasticsearch Endpoints

The Elasticsearch Management page displays all saved configurations:

• Name: Friendly identifier shown to users
• URL: Elasticsearch endpoint
• Index: Target index pattern
• Actions: Edit or Delete options

Edit an Endpoint

1. Click the Edit icon next to the saved configuration
2. Modify any field (Name, URL, Index, credentials, SSL verification)
3. Click Save to update

Delete an Endpoint

1. Click the Delete icon next to the saved configuration
2. Confirm the deletion

How Users Select Elasticsearch

When users configure global parameters for a scenario or workflow, they can:

1. Expand the Global parameters section
2. Locate the Elasticsearch parameter
3. Click the dropdown to view all saved Elasticsearch configurations
4. Select an Elasticsearch endpoint by name (e.g., “Production ES”)

The selected configuration automatically applies the admin-defined connection details (URL, index, credentials) to the scenario execution.

Users cannot:

• Add new Elasticsearch endpoints from the scenario configuration interface
• Edit existing saved configurations
• View sensitive details like passwords (only admins can see/edit credentials)

Users can:

• Choose from the dropdown list of saved Elasticsearch endpoints
• Opt not to use Elasticsearch (by leaving the parameter unset)

Best Practices

Naming Conventions

Use descriptive names that indicate the purpose or environment:

• ✅ Production Observability
• ✅ Staging Metrics
• ✅ Dev Team Shared ES
• ❌ ES1, Elasticsearch, Test

Security

• Use dedicated credentials for krkn with limited write permissions to specific indices
• Enable SSL verification for production endpoints
• Restrict index patterns to prevent accidental data overwrites (e.g., krkn-* not *)

Index Patterns

Use time-based or scenario-based index naming:

• krkn-chaos-{YYYY-MM-DD} — daily indices for easy retention management
• krkn-scenarios-* — scenario-specific index pattern
• krkn-{environment}-* — environment-specific indices

Verification

After adding an Elasticsearch endpoint, verify it works:

1. Run a simple chaos scenario with the Run Scenarios feature
2. Select the saved Elasticsearch configuration in Global parameters
3. Execute the scenario
4. Check the Elasticsearch index for new documents:

   curl -X GET "https://elasticsearch.example.com:9200/krkn-chaos-*/_search?pretty" \
     -u username:password
   

Successful indexing confirms the configuration is correct and accessible from the krkn-operator platform.