01-install.adoc

partial$variables.adoc = Rancher UI extension quickstart :revdate: 2025-07-09 :page-revdate: {revdate} :description: UI extension quickstart for {short-project-name}. :doc-persona: ["kubewarden-operator", "kubewarden-integrator"] :doc-topic: ["operator-manual", "ui-extension", "installation"] :doc-type: ["howto"] :keywords: ["kubewarden", "kubernetes", "rancher ui extension"] :current-version: {page-origin-branch}

This section describes installing the {short-project-name} UI as an extension of Rancher Manager.

Install {short-project-name} UI Extension

You install the {short-project-name} UI as a global extension, however, you install the {short-project-name} controller through the Rancher UI as a cluster scoped resource.

Note	For air-gapped installations, follow these steps.

Within the Extensions page, select the "Enable" button and choose the option to add the Rancher Extensions Repository. When enabled, the "{short-project-name}" extension item appears automatically. Select this item to install the extension. Once installed, you can install {short-project-name} into the required cluster.

Install {short-project-name}

Following the previous steps, within your cluster a new item appears in the side-menu for {short-project-name}. This dashboard page guides you through the installation process, completing the prerequisites.

Note	During the "App Install" step of the installation wizard, the "Install {short-project-name}" button may remain grayed out. If this happens, refresh the page and navigate back to this step.

Post-Installation

After completing the installation the dashboard page and side menu now contain new items, namely Policy Servers, Cluster Admission Policies, and Admission Policies. From here you can create Policy Servers and Policies to control behavior within your cluster.

Dashboard view

Enabling the default Policy Server and policies

Within the dashboard page you can select the "Install Chart" button to install the kubewarden-defaults Helm chart. This chart includes the default Policy Server and a few curated policies.

After installing the chart, you can view the default Policy Server details with the related policies in a sortable table.

Policy Server detail view

Creating policies

When creating policies, you are initially given a "Custom Policy" option from the Policy Grid. Provide the required information for your policy’s Name, Module, and Rules. It’s recommended to add the Policy Catalog repository to access {short-project-name}'s official policies.

Creating a custom policy

Additional features

Follow the instructions to include Monitoring or Tracing.

Air-gapped installation

As {short-project-name} is a Rancher Official Extension, the Rancher team provides a mechanism to automatically generate an Extension Catalog Image. This becomes added to the rancher-images.txt file when installing Rancher Manager for air-gapped instances.

Once this image is mirrored to a registry accessible to your air-gapped cluster, you can import the image within the Rancher UI. This creates a local Helm repository with the {short-project-name} UI chart for installation.

Installation steps

1. Create a registry secret within the cattle-ui-plugin-system namespace. Enter the domain of the image address in the Registry Domain Name field.

2. Navigate back to the Extensions page (for example, https://cluster-ip/dashboard/c/local/uiplugins).

3. On the top right, select Manage Extension Catalogs.

4. Select the Import Extension Catalog button.

5. Enter the image address in the Catalog Image Reference field.

6. Select the secret you just created from the Pull Secrets drop-down menu.

7. Click Load. The extension will now be Pending.

8. Return to the Extensions page.

9. Select the Available tab, and click the Reload button to make sure that the list of extensions is up to date.

10. Find the {short-project-name} extension you just added, and select the Install button.