{k}AppNav is a tool that extends the Kubernetes Console to provide display, inspection, understanding, and navigation through the deployed resources that comprise an application.
Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
The above description, from the Kubernetes homepage, is centered on containerized applications. Yet, the Kubernetes metadata, objects, and visualizations (e.g., within Dashboard) are focused on container infrastructure rather than the applications themselves.
The Application CRD (Custom Resource Definition) in the Kubernetes Application project aims to change that in a way that's interoperable between many supporting tools.
In Cloud Native application architectures, typically multiple microservices, plus some number of 'web apps', mobile front-ends, data bases, etc - taken together - comprise a (big "A") application in the eyes of an application architect.
For an application deployed to Kubernetes, the Application CRD provides the basis for organizing the resources that comprise a big "A" application.
For big "A" applications deployed across Kubernetes and non-Kubernetes environments - think WAS transformation - the non-Kubernetes assets can be represented in Kubernetes using CRDs.
The following diagram depicts a big "A" application comprised of two Kubernetes deployments and a WAS ND (Java EE) application. Assuming use of a "WAS ND App" CRD, an Application CRD can be used to define an Application (big "A") that comprises all three resources:
{k}AppNav provides visualization of all defined Applications, offering drill down into their respective comprised 'components'. Each component is a Kubernetes resource. Each Kubernetes resource has a 'Kind' - e.g. Deployment, Service, WAS-ND-App (a CRD), etc. {k}AppNav offers configurable action menu items by Kind. These menu items provide URLs that enable the user to navigate to other tools in context - e.g. the log, monitor, trace, configuration page (or tool) for the currently selected component.
Taken together, all this provides a way to define, visualize, and navigate Cloud Native Applications, yielding a superior user experience for applications, that dramatically surpasses the infrastructure view offered by the ICP console itself.
