kubectl command book

This is my digital command book for kubectl commands to interact with K8s clusters. This is a work in progress and will be updated with more detail + descriptions as I go.

kubectl command book

Basic commands for managing Kubernetes contexts and configurations.

Command	Description
kubectl config get-contexts	List all available contexts and show which one is currently active.
kubectl config use-context $context$	Switch to a different context.

Operations

Common operations for managing Kubernetes resources.

Command	Description	Example
kubectl apply	Apply a configuration to a resource by file or stdin.	kubectl apply -f ./my-manifest.yaml
kubectl create	Create a resource from a file or from stdin.	kubectl create -f ./my-resource.yaml
kubectl run	Run a particular image on the cluster.	kubectl run my-nginx --image=nginx
kubectl explain	Get documentation for a resource.	kubectl explain pods
kubectl get	List one or more resources.	kubectl get pods
kubectl get pods	List all pods in the namespace.	kubectl get pods
kubectl describe	Show detailed information about a resource.	kubectl describe pods my-pod
kubectl exec	Execute a command in a container.	kubectl exec -it my-pod -- /bin/bash
kubectl logs	Print the logs for a container in a pod.	kubectl logs my-pod

Resource Aliases

Shortcuts for commonly used Kubernetes resources.

Resource	Alias
nodes	no
pods	po
services	svc

Output Options

Options for formatting the output of kubectl commands.

Command	Description
-o wide	Output additional information.
-o yaml	Output the resource in YAML format.
-o json	Output the resource in JSON format.
--dry-run	Simulate the command without making any changes.

Options for adjusting verbosity in output

| Verbosity | Description | |———–|————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-| | --v=0 | Generally useful for this to ALWAYS be visible to an operator. | | --v=1 | A reasonable default log level if you don’t want verbosity. | | --v=2 | Useful steady state information about the service and important log messages that may correlate to significant changes in the system. This is the recommended default log level for most systems. | | --v=3 | Extended information about changes. | | --v=4 | Debug level verbosity. | | --v=6 | Display requested resources. | | --v=7 | Display HTTP request headers, including Application-Type and User Agent. | | --v=8 | Display HTTP request contents. | | --v=9 | Display HTTP request contents without truncation of contents. |

Cluster Information

Commands for retrieving information about the Kubernetes cluster and its resources.

Command	Description
kubectl cluster-info	Display cluster information.
kubectl get nodes	List all nodes with their status, roles, age, and version.
kubectl get nodes -o wide	List all nodes with additional information like IPs and kernel versions.
kubectl get pods	List all pods in the default namespace.
kubectl get pods --namespace redis	List all pods in the redis namespace.
kubectl get all --all-namespaces	List all resources in all namespaces.
kubectl api-resources	List all available resource types.
kubectl explain pod	Show detailed documentation for the pod resource.
kubectl explain pod.spec	Show detailed documentation for the pod spec.
kubectl explain pod.spec.containers	Show detailed documentation for the pod containers spec.
kubectl explain pod --recursive	Show detailed documentation for the pod resource and all its fields.

Node Information

Commands for retrieving detailed information about nodes in the cluster.

Command	Description	Example
kubectl describe nodes <node>	Show detailed information about a specific node.	kubectl describe nodes aks-nodepool1-30702851-vmss000000

Help Commands

Commands for getting help and documentation for kubectl commands.

Command	Description	Example
kubectl -h	Show help for kubectl.	kubectl get -h
kubectl create -h	Show help for the create command.	kubectl create -h

Deployment (Imperative)

Commands for creating and managing deployments imperatively.

Command	Description
kubectl create deployment nginx --image=nginx	Create a deployment named nginx with the nginx image.
kubectl run nginx --image=nginx	Start a pod named nginx with the nginx image.

Deployment (Declarative)

Define the desired state in code using a manifest in YAML or JSON, then use kubectl apply -f deployment.yml.

Command	Description
kubectl apply -f deployment.yml	Apply the deployment configuration from a YAML file.

Deploying Resources Imperatively

Commands for creating and managing resources imperatively.

Command	Description
kubectl create deployment hello-world --image=redis:alpine	Create a deployment named hello-world with the redis:alpine image.
kubectl run hello-world-pod --image=redis:alpine	Start a pod named hello-world-pod with the redis:alpine image.
kubectl create deployment hello-world --image=$image --dry-run=client -o yaml > deployment.yaml	Generate a deployment YAML file without creating the deployment.
kubectl get deployment hello-world	List the hello-world deployment.
kubectl get replicaset	List all ReplicaSets.
kubectl describe deployment hello-world	Show detailed information about the hello-world deployment.
kubectl describe replicaset hello-world	Show detailed information about the hello-world ReplicaSet.
kubectl describe pod hello-world	Show detailed information about the hello-world pod.
kubectl expose deployment hello-world --port=80 --target-port=8080	Expose the hello-world deployment as a service.
kubectl get service hello-world	List the hello-world service.
kubectl describe service hello-world	Show detailed information about the hello-world service.
curl http://$SERVICEIP:PORT	Access the hello-world service inside the cluster.
kubectl get endpoints hello-world	List the endpoints for the hello-world service.
kubectl get deployment hello-world -o yaml	Output the hello-world deployment in YAML format.
kubectl get deployment hello-world -o json	Output the hello-world deployment in JSON format.

Deployment Declaratively

Commands for creating and managing deployments declaratively.

Command	Description
kubectl create deployment hello-world --image=redis:alpine --dry-run=client -o yaml	Generate a deployment YAML file without creating the deployment.
more deployment.yml	View the contents of the deployment.yml file.
kubectl deploy	Deploy the resources defined in the YAML files.
kubectl expose > service.yml	Generate a service YAML file using the expose command.
kubectl apply -f service.yml	Apply the service YAML file to create the service.
kubectl get all	List all resources including State, Deployment, ReplicaSet, Pod, and Service.
kubectl get service hello-world	List the hello-world service.
kubectl edit deployment hello-world	Edit the hello-world deployment on the fly.
kubectl scale deployment hello-world --replicas=40	Scale the hello-world deployment to 40 replicas.
kubectl diff -f deployment-new.yaml	Diff that with the current deployment file to narrow down where the changes are.

Logs

Commands for retrieving logs from containers and troubleshooting.

Command	Description	Example
kubectl logs $podname$	Print the logs for a specific pod.	kubectl logs hello-world-pod

# This is how you can remote into a container.
kubectl exec -it redis -- /bin/sh
hostname
ip addr
exit