Completion

installing bash completion on macOS using homebrew if running Bash 3.2 included with macOS

brew install bash-completion

or, if running Bash 4.1+

brew install bash-completion@2

if you've installed via other means, you may need add the completion to your completion directory:

kubectl completion bash > $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectl

installing bash completion on Linux

source <(kubectl completion bash)

write bash completion code to a file and source if from .bash_profile

kubectl completion bash > ~/.kube/completion.bash.inc
printf "
# Kubectl shell completion
source '$HOME/.kube/completion.bash.inc'
" >> $HOME/.bash_profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile

Load the kubectl completion code for zsh[1] into the current shell

source <(kubectl completion zsh)

set the kubectl completion code for zsh[1] to autoload on startup

kubectl completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_kubectl"

syntax

Kubectl is a powerful tool to manage each object on a Kubernetes cluster. The command has a simple and unique syntax to manage everything :

kubectl [command] [TYPE] [NAME] [flags]

   command : specifies the operation that you want to perform on one or more resources (create, get, describe, delete)
   type : specifies the resource type. Resource types are case-insensitive and you can specify the singular, plural, or abbreviated forms
   name : specifies the name of the resource. Names are case-sensitive. If the name is omitted, details for all resources are displayed
   flags : specifies optional flags.

Useful basic commands Create

Create a resource from a file or from stdin.

Create a pod using the data in pod.json.

kubectl create -f ./pod.json

Create a pod based on the JSON passed into stdin.

cat pod.json | kubectl create -f -

Edit the data in docker-registry.yaml in JSON using the v1 API format then create the resource using the edited data.

kubectl create -f docker-registry.yaml --edit --output-version=v1 -o json

Create all the resources avaibale in the folder

kubeclt create -f <folder_name>

Delete

Delete resources by filenames, stdin, resources and names, or by resources and label selector.

Delete a pod using the type and name specified in pod.json.

kubectl delete -f ./pod.json

Delete a pod based on the type and name in the JSON passed into stdin.

cat pod.json | kubectl delete -f -

Delete pods and services with same names "baz" and "foo"

kubectl delete pod,service baz foo

Delete pods and services with label name=myLabel.

kubectl delete pods,services -l name=myLabel

Delete a pod with minimal delay

kubectl delete pod foo --now

Force delete a pod on a dead node

kubectl delete pod foo --grace-period=0 --force

Delete all pods

kubectl delete pods --all

Delete all resources available in the folder.

kubectl delete -f <folder_name>

Edit

Edit a resource from the default editor.

Edit the service named 'docker-registry':

kubectl edit svc/docker-registry

Use an alternative editor

KUBE_EDITOR="nano" kubectl edit svc/docker-registry

Edit the job 'myjob' in JSON using the v1 API format:

kubectl edit job.v1.batch/myjob -o json

Edit the deployment 'mydeployment' in YAML and save the modified config in its annotation:

kubectl edit deployment/mydeployment -o yaml --save-config

Expose

Expose a resource as a new Kubernetes service.

Create a service for a replicated nginx, which serves on port 80 and connects to the containers on port 8000.

kubectl expose rc nginx --port=80 --target-port=8000

Create a service for a replication controller identified by type and name specified in "nginx-controller.yaml", which serves on port 80 and connects to the containers on port 8000.

kubectl expose -f nginx-controller.yaml --port=80 --target-port=8000

Create a service for a pod valid-pod, which serves on port 444 with the name "frontend"

kubectl expose pod valid-pod --port=444 --name=frontend

Create a second service based on the above service, exposing the container port 8443 as port 443 with the name "nginx-https"

kubectl expose service nginx --port=443 --target-port=8443 --name=nginx-https

Create a service for a replicated streaming application on port 4100 balancing UDP traffic and named 'video-stream'.

kubectl expose rc streamer --port=4100 --protocol=udp --name=video-stream

Create a service for a replicated nginx using replica set, which serves on port 80 and connects to the containers on port 8000.

kubectl expose rs nginx --port=80 --target-port=8000

Create a service for an nginx deployment, which serves on port 80 and connects to the containers on port 8000.

kubectl expose deployment nginx --port=80 --target-port=8000

Access Pod without exposing as service using kubectl --raw

kubectl get pod <pod_name> -o yaml|grep selfLink kubectl get --raw <selfLink>:port/proxy/<filename>

Get

Display one or many resources.

List all pods.

kubectl get pods

List all pods in ps output format with more information (such as node name).

kubectl get pods -o wide

List a single replication controller with specified NAME in ps output format.

kubectl get replicationcontroller web

List a single pod in JSON output format.

kubectl get -o json pod <pod-name>

List a pod identified by type and name specified in "pod.yaml" in JSON output format.

kubectl get -f pod.yaml -o json

Return only the phase value of the specified pod.

kubectl get -o template pod/<pod-name> --template=

List all replication controllers and services together in ps output format.

kubectl get rc,services

List one or more resources by their type and names.

kubectl get rc/web service/frontend pods/<pod-name>

List all resources with different types.

kubectl get all

Run

Create and run a particular image, possibly replicated.

Start a single instance of nginx.

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx

Start a single instance of hazelcast and let the container expose port 5701 .

kubectl run hazelcast --image=hazelcast --port=5701

Start a single instance of hazelcast and set environment variables "DNS_DOMAIN=cluster" and "POD_NAMESPACE=default" in the container.

kubectl run hazelcast --image=hazelcast --env="DNS_DOMAIN=cluster" --env="POD_NAMESPACE=default"

Start a single instance of hazelcast and set labels "app=hazelcast" and "env=prod" in the container.

kubectl run hazelcast --image=nginx --labels="app=hazelcast,env=prod"

Start a replicated instance of nginx.

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --replicas=5

Dry run. Print the corresponding API objects without creating them.

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --dry-run

Start a single instance of nginx, but overload the spec of the deployment with a partial set of values parsed from JSON.

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --overrides='{ "apiVersion": "v1", "spec": { ... } }'

Start a pod of busybox and keep it in the foreground, don't restart it if it exits.

kubectl run -i -t busybox --image=busybox --restart=Never

Start the nginx container using the default command, but use custom arguments (arg1 .. argN) for that command.

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx -- <arg1> <arg2> ... <argN>

Start the nginx container using a different command and custom arguments.

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --command -- <cmd> <arg1> ... <argN>

Start the perl container to compute π to 2000 places and print it out.

kubectl run pi --image=perl --restart=OnFailure -- perl -Mbignum=bpi -wle 'print bpi(2000)'

Start the cron job to compute π to 2000 places and print it out every 5 minutes.

kubectl run pi --schedule="0/5 * * * ?" --image=perl --restart=OnFailure -- perl -Mbignum=bpi -wle 'print bpi(2000)'

Set

Configure application resources.

Update deployment 'registry' with a new environment variable

kubectl set env deployment/registry STORAGE_DIR=/local

List the environment variables defined on a deployments 'sample-build'

kubectl set env deployment/sample-build --list

List the environment variables defined on all pods

kubectl set env pods --all --list

Output modified deployment in YAML, and does not alter the object on the server

kubectl set env deployment/sample-build STORAGE_DIR=/data -o yaml

Update all containers in all replication controllers in the project to have ENV=prod

kubectl set env rc --all ENV=prod

Import environment from a secret

kubectl set env --from=secret/mysecret deployment/myapp

Import environment from a config map with a prefix

kubectl set env --from=configmap/myconfigmap --prefix=MYSQL_ deployment/myapp

Remove the environment variable ENV from container 'c1' in all deployment configs

kubectl set env deployments --all --containers="c1" ENV-

Remove the environment variable ENV from a deployment definition on disk and
update the deployment config on the server

kubectl set env -f deploy.json ENV-

Set some of the local shell environment into a deployment config on the server

env | grep RAILS_ | kubectl set env -e - deployment/registry

Set a deployment's nginx container image to 'nginx:1.9.1', and its busybox container image to 'busybox'.

kubectl set image deployment/nginx busybox=busybox nginx=nginx:1.9.1

Update all deployments' and rc's nginx container's image to 'nginx:1.9.1'

kubectl set image deployments,rc nginx=nginx:1.9.1 --all

Update image of all containers of daemonset abc to 'nginx:1.9.1'

kubectl set image daemonset abc *=nginx:1.9.1

Print result (in yaml format) of updating nginx container image from local file, without hitting the server

kubectl set image -f path/to/file.yaml nginx=nginx:1.9.1 --local -o yaml

Set a deployments nginx container cpu limits to "200m" and memory to "512Mi"

kubectl set resources deployment nginx -c=nginx --limits=cpu=200m,memory=512Mi

Set the resource request and limits for all containers in nginx

kubectl set resources deployment nginx --limits=cpu=200m,memory=512Mi --requests=cpu=100m,memory=256Mi

Remove the resource requests for resources on containers in nginx

kubectl set resources deployment nginx --limits=cpu=0,memory=0 --requests=cpu=0,memory=0

Print the result (in yaml format) of updating nginx container limits from a local, without hitting the server

kubectl set resources -f path/to/file.yaml --limits=cpu=200m,memory=512Mi --local -o yaml

Set Deployment nginx-deployment's ServiceAccount to serviceaccount1

kubectl set serviceaccount deployment nginx-deployment serviceaccount1

Print the result (in yaml format) of updated nginx deployment with serviceaccount from local file, without hitting apiserver

kubectl set sa -f nginx-deployment.yaml serviceaccount1 --local --dry-run -o yaml

Useful deploy commands Autoscale

Creates an autoscaler that automatically chooses and sets the number of pods that run in a kubernetes cluste

Auto scale a deployment "foo", with the number of pods between 2 and 10, no target CPU utilization specified so a default autoscaling policy will be used:

kubectl autoscale deployment foo --min=2 --max=10

Auto scale a replication controller "foo", with the number of pods between 1 and 5, target CPU utilization at 80%:

kubectl autoscale rc foo --max=5 --cpu-percent=80

Rollout

Manage the rollout of a resource.

Rollback to the previous deployment

kubectl rollout undo deployment/abc

Check the rollout status of a daemonset

kubectl rollout status daemonset/foo

View the rollout history of a deployment

kubectl rollout history deployment/abc

View the details of daemonset revision 3

kubectl rollout history daemonset/abc --revision=3

Mark the nginx deployment as paused. Any current state of
the deployment will continue its function, new updates to the deployment will not
have an effect as long as the deployment is paused.

kubectl rollout pause deployment/nginx

Resume an already paused deployment

kubectl rollout resume deployment/nginx

Watch the rollout status of a deployment

kubectl rollout status deployment/nginx

Rollback to the previous deployment

kubectl rollout undo deployment/abc

Rollback to daemonset revision 3

kubectl rollout undo daemonset/abc --to-revision=3

Rollback to the previous deployment with dry-run

kubectl rollout undo --dry-run=true deployment/abc

Scale

Set a new size for a Deployment, ReplicaSet, Replication Controller, or StatefulSet.

Scale a replicaset named 'foo' to 3.

kubectl scale --replicas=3 rs/foo

Scale a resource identified by type and name specified in "foo.yaml" to 3.

kubectl scale --replicas=3 -f foo.yaml

If the deployment named mysql's current size is 2, scale mysql to 3.

kubectl scale --current-replicas=2 --replicas=3 deployment/mysql

Scale multiple replication controllers.

kubectl scale --replicas=5 rc/foo rc/bar rc/baz

Scale statefulset named 'web' to 3.

kubectl scale --replicas=3 statefulset/web

Useful cluster management commands Cluster-info

Display addresses of the master and services with label kubernetes.io/cluster-service=true To further debug and diagnose cluster problems, use ‘kubectl cluster-info dump’.

Print the address of the master and cluster services

kubectl cluster-info

Cordon / Uncordon

Mark node as (un)schedulable.

Mark node "foo" as unschedulable.

kubectl cordon foo

Mark node "foo" as schedulable.

$ kubectl uncordon foo

Drain

Drain node in preparation for maintenance.

Drain node "foo", even if there are pods not managed by a ReplicationController, ReplicaSet, Job, DaemonSet or StatefulSet on it.

$ kubectl drain foo --force

As above, but abort if there are pods not managed by a ReplicationController, ReplicaSet, Job, DaemonSet or StatefulSet, and use a grace period of 15 minutes.

$ kubectl drain foo --grace-period=90

Drain node by ignoring Deamonsets

kubectl drain <node_name> --ignore-daemonsets

Taint

Update the taints on one or more nodes.

Update node 'foo' with a taint with key 'dedicated' and value 'special-user' and effect 'NoSchedule'.
If a taint with that key and effect already exists, its value is replaced as specified.

kubectl taint nodes foo dedicated=special-user:NoSchedule

Remove from node 'foo' the taint with key 'dedicated' and effect 'NoSchedule' if one exists.

kubectl taint nodes foo dedicated:NoSchedule-

Remove from node 'foo' all the taints with key 'dedicated'

kubectl taint nodes foo dedicated-

Add a taint with key 'dedicated' on nodes having label mylabel=X

kubectl taint node -l myLabel=X dedicated=foo:PreferNoSchedule

Top

Display Resource (CPU/Memory/Storage) usage.

Show metrics for all nodes

kubectl top node

Show metrics for a given node

kubectl top node NODE_NAME

Show metrics for all pods in the default namespace

kubectl top pod

Show metrics for all pods in the given namespace

kubectl top pod --namespace=NAMESPACE

Show metrics for a given pod and its containers

kubectl top pod POD_NAME --containers

Show metrics for the pods defined by label name=myLabel

kubectl top pod -l name=myLabel

Useful troubleshooting and debugging commands Describe

Show details of a specific resource or group of resources.

Describe a node

kubectl describe nodes kubernetes-node-emt8.c.myproject.internal

Describe a pod

kubectl describe pods/<pod-name>

Describe a pod identified by type and name in "pod.json"

kubectl describe -f pod.json

Describe all pods

kubectl describe pods

Describe pods by label name=myLabel

kubectl describe po -l name=myLabel

Describe all pods managed by the 'frontend' replication controller (rc-created pods
get the name of the rc as a prefix in the pod the name).

kubectl describe pods frontend

Exec

Execute a command in a container.

Get output from running 'date' from pod 123456-7890, using the first container by default

kubectl exec 123456-7890 date

Get output from running 'date' in ruby-container from pod 123456-7890

kubectl exec 123456-7890 -c ruby-container date

Switch to raw terminal mode, sends stdin to 'bash' in ruby-container from pod 123456-7890
and sends stdout/stderr from 'bash' back to the client

kubectl exec 123456-7890 -c ruby-container -i -t -- bash -il

List contents of /usr from the first container of pod 123456-7890 and sort by modification time.
If the command you want to execute in the pod has any flags in common (e.g. -i),
you must use two dashes (--) to separate your command's flags/arguments.
Also note, do not surround your command and its flags/arguments with quotes
unless that is how you would execute it normally (i.e., do ls -t /usr, not "ls -t /usr").

kubectl exec 123456-7890 -i -t -- ls -t /usr

Logs

Print the logs for a container in a pod or specified resource. If the pod has only one container, the container name is optional.

Return snapshot logs from pod nginx with only one container

kubectl logs nginx

Return snapshot logs for the pods defined by label app=nginx

kubectl logs -lapp=nginx

Return snapshot of previous terminated ruby container logs from pod web-1

kubectl logs -p -c ruby web-1

Begin streaming the logs of the ruby container in pod web-1

kubectl logs -f -c ruby web-1

Display only the most recent 20 lines of output in pod nginx

kubectl logs --tail=20 nginx

Show all logs from pod nginx written in the last hour

kubectl logs --since=1h nginx

Return snapshot logs from first container of a job named hello

kubectl logs job/hello

Return snapshot logs from container nginx-1 of a deployment named nginx

kubectl logs deployment/nginx -c nginx-1

Proxy

Creates a proxy server or application-level gateway between localhost and the Kubernetes API Server. It also allows serving static content over specified HTTP path. All incoming data enters through one port and gets forwarded to the remote kubernetes API Server port, except for the path matching the static content path.

To proxy all of the kubernetes api and nothing else, use:

$ kubectl proxy --api-prefix=/

To proxy only part of the kubernetes api and also some static files:

$ kubectl proxy --www=/my/files --www-prefix=/static/ --api-prefix=/api/

The above lets you 'curl localhost:8001/api/v1/pods'.

To proxy the entire kubernetes api at a different root, use:

$ kubectl proxy --api-prefix=/custom/

The above lets you 'curl localhost:8001/custom/api/v1/pods'

Run a proxy to kubernetes apiserver on port 8011, serving static content from ./local/www/

kubectl proxy --port=8011 --www=./local/www/

Run a proxy to kubernetes apiserver on an arbitrary local port.
The chosen port for the server will be output to stdout.

kubectl proxy --port=0

Useful advanced commands Apply

Apply a configuration to a resource by filename or stdin. The resource name must be specified. This resource will be created if it doesn’t exist yet. To use ‘apply’, always create the resource initially with either ‘apply’ or ‘create –save-config’.

Apply the configuration in pod.json to a pod.

kubectl apply -f ./pod.json

Apply the JSON passed into stdin to a pod.

cat pod.json | kubectl apply -f -

Note: --prune is still in Alpha
Apply the configuration in manifest.yaml that matches label app=nginx and delete all the other resources that are not in the file and match label app=nginx.

kubectl apply --prune -f manifest.yaml -l app=nginx

Apply the configuration in manifest.yaml and delete all the other configmaps that are not in the file.

kubectl apply --prune -f manifest.yaml --all --prune-whitelist=core/v1/ConfigMap

Useful settings commands label

Update the labels on a resource.

Update pod 'foo' with the label 'unhealthy' and the value 'true'.

kubectl label pods foo unhealthy=true

Update pod 'foo' with the label 'status' and the value 'unhealthy', overwriting any existing value.

kubectl label --overwrite pods foo status=unhealthy

Update all pods in the namespace

kubectl label pods --all status=unhealthy

Update a pod identified by the type and name in "pod.json"

kubectl label -f pod.json status=unhealthy

Update pod 'foo' only if the resource is unchanged from version 1.

kubectl label pods foo status=unhealthy --resource-version=1

Update pod 'foo' by removing a label named 'bar' if it exists.
Does not require the --overwrite flag.

kubectl label pods foo bar-

Useful other commands Config

Modify kubeconfig files using subcommands like “kubectl config set current-context my-context”.

Display the current-context

kubectl config current-context

Delete the minikube cluster

kubectl config delete-cluster minikube

Delete the context for the minikube cluster

kubectl config delete-context minikube

List the clusters kubectl knows about

kubectl config get-clusters

List the context kubectl knows about

kubectl config get-contexts

Rename the context 'old-name' to 'new-name' in your kubeconfig file

kubectl config rename-context old-name new-name

Set only the server field on the e2e cluster entry without touching other values.

kubectl config set-cluster e2e --server=https://1.2.3.4

Embed certificate authority data for the e2e cluster entry

kubectl config set-cluster e2e --certificate-authority=~/.kube/e2e/kubernetes.ca.crt

Disable cert checking for the dev cluster entry

kubectl config set-cluster e2e --insecure-skip-tls-verify=true

Set the user field on the gce context entry without touching other values

kubectl config set-context gce --user=cluster-admin

Use the context for the minikube cluster

kubectl config use-context minikube

Version

Print the client and server version information for the current context.

Print the client and server versions for the current context

kubectl version

Kubernetes Cheatsheet

Completion

syntax

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