Deploying Nebula Graph on Kubernetes: Hands‑On Guide and FAQs

On September 2, the VEsoft Inc. (欧若数网) developer evangelist Gu Si hosted an online sharing titled “Graph Database on K8s”, introducing the evolution and implementation of the Nebula Graph (NG) graph database on Kubernetes, a brief overview of the NG 2.5.0 release, and a hands‑on demonstration of deploying NG on K8s and its application scenarios.

1. How to deploy Nebula Graph via the KubeSphere UI?

The presenter currently provides a one‑line CLI tool to launch Nebula in KubeSphere; a UI‑based tutorial has not yet been released but will be shared later. The KubeSphere community plans to integrate Nebula into its application store, simplifying future deployments.

2. Is there a Prometheus exporter for Nebula? How to monitor it with Grafana or KubeSphere?

Yes, an open‑source exporter is available at https://github.com/vesoft-inc/nebula-stats-exporter. The Nebula benchmark repository also contains ready‑made dashboards ( https://github.com/vesoft-inc/nebula-bench/tree/master/third), and an additional dashboard can be used for one‑click monitoring deployment (

https://docs.nebula-graph.com.cn/2.5.0/nebula-dashboard/1.what-is-dashboard/

).

3. Does Nebula provide a Helm chart? Can it be installed directly?

Yes, the Nebula operator is distributed via a Helm chart; see https://github.com/vesoft-inc/nebula-operator. The installation error mentioned was due to a missing cert‑manager dependency; the required dependencies are described in the install guide (

https://github.com/vesoft-inc/nebula-operator/blob/master/doc/user/install_guide.md

). For a quick local setup, the author recommends the nebula-operator‑KIND project ( https://github.com/wey-gu/nebula-operator-kind) which deploys all components inside a Docker‑in‑K8s environment.