Managing Connections

Every cluster, metrics server, and source that Meshery manages is a Connection. After you register a Connection, use this guide to keep it in the state you want: find it, check its status, change its state, reconfigure it, and remove it when you are done.

Find your Connections

Open Lifecycle → Connections. The table lists each Connection with its Name, Environments, Kind, Category, Status, and timestamps. Search by name, or filter the table by kind and status. Click a Kubernetes Connection’s row to expand it and see its server, its Operator, MeshSync, and Broker status, and its Diagnostics.

mesheryctl connection list
mesheryctl connection list --kind kubernetes --status connected
mesheryctl connection list --count
mesheryctl connection view <connection-name|connection-id> --output-format json

list shows 10 Connections per page. Use --page and --pagesize to see more. Repeat --kind or --status to match several values.

Change a Connection’s state

The Status column holds a selector for each Connection. Choose the state you want, then confirm the transition. The selector only offers transitions that the Connection’s kind allows, and you need permission to change Connection state. Common transitions:

Goal	Choose	Result
Start managing a discovered or registered Connection	Connected	Meshery connects and, for a Kubernetes cluster, starts MeshSync.
Stop managing it but keep it	Disconnected	Meshery disconnects. Reconnect it later from the same selector.
Stop Meshery from rediscovering it	Ignored	Meshery keeps the Connection on record and leaves it alone.
Remove it	Deleted	Meshery deletes the Connection. You cannot transition it again.

The Status filter also lists Maintenance, but no current Connection kind offers a transition into it.

For what each state means, see States and the Lifecycle of Connections.

Reconfigure a Connection

Open the Connection’s Actions menu:

Configure opens the Connection Wizard in configure mode. For a Kubernetes Connection, this is where you rename it, change its status, switch the MeshSync deployment mode, and flush MeshSync data.
Configure Controllers (Kubernetes only) tunes the Operator, MeshSync, and Broker for that cluster. See Configuring Meshery Operator, MeshSync, and Broker.
Copy link copies a direct link to the Connection.

Group Connections into Environments

Use the Environments column to assign a Connection to one or more Environments. Environments are how you target a deployment at a set of clusters and how you share Connections with your team through Workspaces.

Remove a Connection

Set the Connection’s Status to Deleted and confirm.

mesheryctl connection delete <connection-id>

Deleting a Kubernetes Connection removes it from Meshery. It does not delete anything that Meshery deployed into the cluster. To remove the Operator, MeshSync, and Broker from the cluster, uninstall them from the Connection first, as described in Operating a connection.

Lifecycle FAQs

Question: Meshery is a collaboration platform. When I bring my infrastructure under Meshery's management, will my Kubernetes clusters be available to all other users? Can other people access my cluster?

Answer:

Only if you explicitly allow it. These controls apply:

1. Ownership: The person who provides the Kubernetes context creates and owns the Connection to that cluster. That person may share the Connection with others on their teams.

2. Permission: To grant team members access, create an Environment, assign the Kubernetes Connection to it, then create a Workspace and assign the Environment to it. Members of the teams you share the Workspace with can then access the cluster.

3. Connectivity: Those people also need a network path to the cluster. There are two common setups:

3.a) The other user runs their own Meshery Server (or signs into a shared instance such as the Playground) and sees the Connection when they sign in. Their Meshery Server must be able to reach your Kubernetes API server over the network.

3.b) The other user signs into your Meshery Server, which already has network access to your cluster. You then need to make your Meshery Server reachable to them, for example over a VPN.

For more information, see Remote Provider Permissions.