Kubectl Cheat Sheet

Table of Contents:

Pods

List all pods in namespace 

kubectl get pods

or

kubectl get pod

or

kubectl get po

View a pod in watch mode 

kubectl get pod <pod> --watch

View all pods in watch mode 

kubectl get pods -A --watch

List sroted pods 

kubectl get pods --sort-by='.status.containerStatuses[0].restartCount'

List pods using a different output 

kubectl get pods -o <json|yaml|wide|custom-columns=...|custom-columns-file=...|go-template=...|go-template-file=...|jsonpath=...|jsonpath-file=...>

Examples:

  • JSON output
kubectl get pods -o json

or

kubectl get pods -ojson

or

kubectl get pods -o=json
  • Wide output:
kubectl get pods -o wide
  • Custom columns:
kubectl get pods -o custom-columns='DATA:spec.containers[*].image'

or

kubectl get pods -o custom-columns='DATA:spec.containers[*].volumeMounts'

or

kubectl get pods -o custom-columns='DATA:metadata.*'

Formatting output

To output details to your terminal window in a specific format, add the -o (or --output) flag to a supported kubectl command (source: K8s docs)

Output format Description
-o=custom-columns=<spec> Print a table using a comma separated list of custom columns
-o=custom-columns-file=<filename> Print a table using the custom columns template in the <filename> file
-o=json Output a JSON formatted API object
-o=jsonpath=<template> Print the fields defined in a jsonpath expression
-o=jsonpath-file=<filename> Print the fields defined by the jsonpath expression in the <filename> file
-o=name Print only the resource name and nothing else
-o=wide Output in the plain-text format with any additional information, and for pods, the node name is included
-o=yaml Output a YAML formatted API object

List all pods in a namespace 

kubectl get pods -n <namespace>

or

kubectl -n <namespace> get pods

or

kubectl --namespace <namespace> get pods

List all pods in all namespaces 

kubectl get pods --all-namespaces

or

kubectl get pods -A

Create from an image 

kubectl run <pod> --generator=run-pod/v1 --image=<image>

In the following cheatsheet, we will be using images such as nginx or busybox.

Example:

kubectl run nginx --generator=run-pod/v1 --image=nginx
kubectl run busybox --generator=run-pod/v1 --image=busybox

Run pod in an interactive shell mode 

kubectl run -i --tty nginx --image=nginx -- sh

Run a command after creating a pod 

kubectl run busybox --image=busybox -- sleep 100000

Executing a command in a running pod 

kubectl exec <pod> -- <command>

Or pass stdin to the container in TTY mode:

kubectl exec -it <pod> -- <command>

Example:

kubectl exec -it nginx -- ls -lrth /app/

Create a pod: dry run mode (without really creating it) 

kubectl run <pod> --generator=run-pod/v1 --image=nginx --dry-run

Patch a pod 

kubectl patch pod <pod> -p '<patch>'

Example:

kubectl patch pod <pod> -p  '{"spec":{"containers":[{"name":"kubernetes-serve-hostname","image":"new image"}]}}'

Another example:

kubectl patch pod valid-pod --type='json' -p='[{"op": "replace", "path": "/spec/containers/0/image", "value":"new image"}]'

Create from a YAML file 

kubectl create -f pod.yaml

Export YAML from the dry run mode 

kubectl run nginx --generator=run-pod/v1 --image=nginx --dry-run -o yaml

Create from STDIN 

cat <<EOF | kubectl create -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: nginx-pod
spec:
  containers:
  - name: nginx
    image: nginx:latest
EOF

Create multiple resources from STDIN 

cat <<EOF | kubectl create -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: nginx-pod
spec:
  containers:
  - name: nginx
    image: nginx:latest
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: busybox
spec:
  containers:
  - name: busybox
    image: busybox
    args:
    - sleep
    - "100"

Create in a namespace 

kubectl run nginx --generator=run-pod/v1 --image=nginx -n <namespace>

Create in a namespace from a file 

kubectl create -f pod.yaml -n <namespace>

Delete pods 

kubectl delete pod/<pod>

or

kubectl delete pod <pod>

If you create the pod from a file, you can also use:

kubectl delete -f pod.yaml

To force deletion:

kubectl delete pod <pod> --grace-period=0 --force

Get pod logs 

kubectl logs <pod>

or

Sometimes a pod contains more than 1 container. You need to filter the output to get logs for a specific container(s)

kubectl logs <pod> -c <container>

To follow the logs output (tail -f):

kubectl logs -f <pod>

If you need to output the logs for all pods with a label

kubectl logs -l <label_name>=<label_value>

Example:

kubectl logs -l env=prod

You can also view logs in a multi container case with labels:

kubectl logs -l <label_name>=<label_value> -c <container>

Or view all cotainers logs with a given label:

kubectl logs -f -l <label_name>=<label_value> --all-containers

List all container id of init container of all pods 

kubectl get pods --all-namespaces -o jsonpath='{range .items[*].status.initContainerStatuses[*]}{.containerID}{"\n"}{end}' | cut -d/ -f3

Show metrics for a given pod 

kubectl top pod <pod>

Show metrics for a given pod and all its containers 

kubectl top pod <pod> --containers

Deployments

Create a deployment 

kubectl run <deployment> --image=<image>

or

kubectl create deployment <deployment> --image=<image>

Create a deployment with a predefined replica number 

kubectl run <deployment> --image=<image> --replicas=<number>

Create a deployment with a predefined replica number and opening a port 

kubectl run <deployment> --image=<image> --replicas=<replicas> --port=<port>

Example:

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --replicas=2 --port=80

Note: The default generator for kubectl run is --generator=deployment/apps.v1.

Note: --generator=deployment/apps.v1 is deprecated and will be removed in future versions. Use kubectl run --generator=run-pod/v1 or kubectl create instead.

Create a deployment with a predefined replica number, opening a port and exposing it 

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --replicas=2 --port=80 --expose

Get a deployment 

kubectl get deploy <deployment>

Watch a deployment 

kubectl get deployment <deployment> --watch

or

kubectl get deployment <deployment> -w

Or using a shorter version:

kubectl get deploy <deployment> -w

Or even the longer one:

kubectl get deployments.apps <deployment> --watch

List all deployments

Same as listing pods, you have multiple options from namespace to output formatters:

kubectl get deploy -n <namespace>

kubectl get deploy --all-namespaces
kubectl get deploy -A

kubectl get deploy -oyaml
kubectl get deploy -owide

Update the image

Rolling update “nginx” containers of “nginx” deployment, updating the image:

kubectl set image deployment/nginx nginx=nginx:1.9.1

Rolling update “api” containers of “backend” deployment, updating the image:

kubectl set image deployment/backend api=image:v2

Scale a deployment 

kubectl scale --replicas=5 deployment/<deployment>

Note: You can use a shorter version:

kubectl scale --replicas=5 deploy/<deployment>

Dry run and YAML output 

kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --replicas=2 --port=80 --dry-run -o yaml

Create a deployment from a file 

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

Edit a deployment 

kubectl edit deployment/<deployment>

Rollback deployment

After editing your deployment, you had an error, a solution can be rolling back to the old deployment status:

kubectl rollout undo deployment <deployment>

Get rollout history

You can check the rollout history:

kubectl rollout history deployment <deployment>
kubectl rollout history deployment <deployment>

Example:

kubectl rollout history deployment nginx

gives you:

REVISION  CHANGE-CAUSE
2         kubectl set image deployment/nginx nginx=nginx:1.9.1 --record=true
3         <none>

Roll back to a previous revision

Using the information from the rollout history, we can get back our deployment to a given revision:

kubectl rollout undo deployment <deployment> --to-revision=<revision>

Example:

kubectl rollout undo deployment nginx --to-revision=2

Execute deployment rollout operations 

kubectl rollout status deployment <deployment>
kubectl rollout pause deployment <deployment>
kubectl rollout resume deployment <deployment>

Port Forwarding

Choosing localhost port 

kubectl port-forward deployment <deployment>  <locahost-port>:<deployment-port>
kubectl port-forward pod <pod>  <locahost-port>:<pod-port>

Example:

Forward to localhost 8090 from pod 6379:

kubectl port-forward redis 8090:6379

Listening on the same port 

kubectl port-forward pod <pod> <port>

Example: Listen on ports 8000 and 9000 on localhost, forwarded from the same ports in the pod (8000 and 9000)

kubectl port-forward pod nginx 8000 9000

Listen on a random port locally 

kubectl port-forward pod <pod> :<pod-port>

Example:

kubectl port-forward pod nginx :80

Listen on port on localhost + another IP 

kubectl port-forward --address localhost,<IP.IP.IP.IP> pod <pod> <locahost-port>:<pod-port>

Example:

kubectl port-forward --address localhost,10.10.10.1 pod redis 8090:6379

Listen on a forwarded port on all addresses 

kubectl port-forward --address 0.0.0.0 pod <pod> <hosts-port>:<pod-port>

Services

Create a service 

kubectl create service <clusterip|externalname|loadbalancer|nodeport> <service> [flags] [options]>

Examples:

kubectl create service clusterip myclusterip --tcp=5678:8080
kubectl create service  loadbalancer myloadbalancer --tcp=80

You can use svc instead of service.

Delete service(s) 

kubectl delete service myclusterip
kubectl delete service myloadbalancer

kubectl delete svc myclusterip
kubectl delete svc myloadbalancer

or

kubectl delete service myclusterip myloadbalancer

Describe a service 

kubectl describe service <service>

Nodes

Get node 

kubectl get nodes

Get a specific node 

kubectl get nodes <node>

Show node metrics 

kubectl top node <node>

Get external IPs of cluster nodes 

kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath='{.items[*].status.addresses[?(@.type=="ExternalIP")].address}'

Describe commands with verbose output 

kubectl describe nodes <node>

Check which nodes are ready 

JSONPATH='{range .items[*]}{@.metadata.name}:{range @.status.conditions[*]}{@.type}={@.status};{end}{end}' && kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath="$JSONPATH" | grep "Ready=True"

Mark a node as unschedulable 

kubectl cordon <node>

Drain a node for maintenance 

kubectl drain <node>

Mark a node as schedulable 

kubectl uncordon <node>

Namespaces

List namespaces 

kubectl get namespaces

or

kubectl get ns

List or describe a namespace 

kubectl get namespace <namespace>
kubectl describe namespace <namespace>

Create namespace 

kubectl create namespace <namespace>

or

kubectl create -f namespace.yaml

or

cat <<EOF | kubectl create -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: mynamespace
EOF

Delete namespace 

kubectl delete namespace <namespace>

or

kubectl delete -f namespace.yaml

Service accounts

List service accounts 

kubectl get serviceaccounts

or

kubectl get sa

Get a service account 

kubectl get serviceaccount <serviceaccount>

or

kubectl get serviceaccounts <serviceaccount>

or

kubectl get sa <serviceaccount>

or

kubectl get sa/<serviceaccount>

Create a service account 

kubectl create serviceaccount <serviceaccount>

Delete a service account 

kubectl delete serviceaccount <serviceaccount>

or

kubectl delete -f myserviceaccount.yaml

Describe a service account 

kubectl describe serviceaccount <serviceaccount>

Events

List events 

kubectl get events -A

List sorted events 

kubectl get events --sort-by=<JSONPath>

Example: Sorted by timestamp

kubectl get events --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp

List formatted events 

kubectl get events -o <json|yaml|wide|custom-columns=...|custom-columns-file=...|go-template=...|go-template-file=...|jsonpath=...|jsonpath-file=...>

Example:

kubectl get events -owide

Documentation

Get the documentation for pod manifests 

kubectl explain pod

Get the documentation for service manifests 

kubectl explain service

Describing resources 

kubectl describe <resource> <reosurce_name>

Example:

kubectl describe pod busybox

or

kubectl describe nodes minikube

Other possible resources you can use with describe:

apiservices.apiregistration.k8s.io
certificatesigningrequests.certificates.k8s.io
clusterrolebindings.rbac.authorization.k8s.io
clusterroles.rbac.authorization.k8s.io
componentstatuses
configmaps
controllerrevisions.apps
cronjobs.batch
csidrivers.storage.k8s.io
csinodes.storage.k8s.io
customresourcedefinitions.apiextensions.k8s.io
daemonsets.apps
daemonsets.extensions
deployments.apps
deployments.extensions
endpoints
events
events.events.k8s.io
horizontalpodautoscalers.autoscaling
ingresses.extensions
ingresses.networking.k8s.io
jobs.batch
leases.coordination.k8s.io
limitranges
mutatingwebhookconfigurations.admissionregistration.k8s.io
namespaces
networkpolicies.extensions
networkpolicies.networking.k8s.io
nodes
persistentvolumeclaims
persistentvolumes
poddisruptionbudgets.policy
pods
podsecuritypolicies.extensions
podsecuritypolicies.policy
podtemplates
priorityclasses.scheduling.k8s.io
replicasets.apps
replicasets.extensions
replicationcontrollers
resourcequotas
rolebindings.rbac.authorization.k8s.io
roles.rbac.authorization.k8s.io
runtimeclasses.node.k8s.io
secrets
serviceaccounts
services
statefulsets.apps
storageclasses.storage.k8s.io
validatingwebhookconfigurations.admissionregistration.k8s.io
volumeattachments.storage.k8s.io

Editing resources

Edit a service 

kubectl edit service <service>

Edit a service with your favorite text editor 

KUBE_EDITOR="vim" edit service <service>

Note: Change service by any editable resource type like pods.

Deleting Resources

Delete a resource using the type and name specified in <file> 

kubectl delete -f <file>

Delete pods and services with same names 

kubectl delete pod,service <name1> <name2>

Delete pods and services with a custom label 

kubectl delete pods,services -l <label-name>=<label-value>

Delete all pods and services in a namespace 

kubectl -n <namespace> delete pods,services --all

Delete all resources in a namespace 

kubectl delte <namespace>

All get commands 

kubectl get all
kubectl get pods
kubectl get replicasets
kubectl get services
kubectl get nodes
kubectl get namespaces
kubectl get configmaps
kubectl get endpoints

Abbreviations / Short forms of resource types

Resource type Abbreviations
componentstatuses cs
configmaps cm
daemonsets ds
deployments deploy
endpoints ep
event ev
horizontalpodautoscalers hpa
ingresses ing
limitranges limits
namespaces ns
nodes no
persistentvolumeclaims pvc
persistentvolumes pv
pods po
podsecuritypolicies psp
replicasets rs
replicationcontrollers rc
resourcequotas quota
serviceaccount sa
services svc

Verbose Kubectl 

kubectl run nginx  --image=nginx --v=5
Verbosity Description
--v=0 Generally useful for this to always be visible to a cluster 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.
--v=8 Display HTTP request contents.
--v=9 Display HTTP request contents without truncation of contents.

(Table source: K8s docs)

Cluster

Display addresses of the master and services 

kubectl cluster-info

Dump cluster state to STDOUT 

kubectl cluster-info dump

Dump cluster state to a file 

kubectl cluster-info dump --output-directory=</file/path>

Compares the current cluster state against the state that the cluster would be in if the manifest was applied 

kubectl diff -f ./my-manifest.yaml

List all images running in a cluster 

kubectl get pods -A -o=custom-columns='DATA:spec.containers[*].image'

Kubectl context

Show merged kubeconfig settings 

kubectl config view

Use multiple kubeconfig 

KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config1:~/.kube/config2:~/.kube/config3

Get a list of users 

kubectl config view -o jsonpath='{.users[*].name}'

Display the first user 

kubectl config view -o jsonpath='{.users[].name}'

Get the password for the “admin” user 

kubectl config view -o jsonpath='{.users[?(@.name == "admin")].user.password}'

Display the current context 

kubectl config current-context

Display list of contexts 

kubectl config get-contexts

Set the default context to <cluster> 

kubectl config use-context <cluster>

Sets a user entry in kubeconfig 

kubectl config set-credentials <username> [options]

Sets a user with a client key 

kubectl config set-credentials <user> --client-key=~/.kube/admin.key

Sets a user with basic auth 

kubectl config set-credentials --username=<username> --password=<password>

Sets a user with client certificate 

kubectl config set-credentials <user> --client-certificate=<path/to/cert> --embed-certs=true

Set a context utilizing a specific config file 

kubectl config --kubeconfig=<config/path> use-context <cluster>

Set a context utilizing a specific username and namespace. 

kubectl config set-context gce --user=cluster-admin --namespace=foo \
  && kubectl config use-context gce

Alias

Create an alias on *nix 

alias k=kubectl

Create an alias on Windows 

Set-Alias -Name k -Value kubectl

Kubectl imperative (create) vs declarative (apply)

Create

You tell your cluster what you want to create, replace or delete, not how you want you it to look like.

kubectl create -f <filename|url>

kubectl delete deployment <deployment-name>
kubectl delete deployment <deployment-filename>
kubectl delete deployment <deployment-url>

Apply

You tell your cluster how you want it to look like.

The creation, deletion and modification of objects is done via a single command. The declarative approach is a statement of the desired end result.

kubectl apply -f <filename|url>

kubectl delete -f <deployment-filename>
kubectl apply -f <deployment-filename>

If the deployment is deleted in <deployment-filename>, it will also be deleted from the cluster.