My kubectl Cheat Sheet

Set Cluster Context

kubectl config use-context <CLUSTER_ADDRESS>

Create a Namespace

kubectl create namespace <NAMESPACE>

Get

kubectl get namespaces

kubectl get namespaces --show-labels

kubectl get nodes

kubectl get pods -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl get svc

kubectl get service --all-namespaces

kubectl get events -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl get externalsecrets -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl get endpoints -n <NAMESPACE>

watch for changes in a list of pods:

kubectl get pods -n <NAMESPACE> -w

count pods:

kubectl get pods -n <NAMESPACE> --no-headers | grep Running | wc -l

list only pod names:

kubectl get pods -n <NAMESPACE> | awk '{print $1}'

list pods on their nodes:

kubectl get pods -n <NAMESPACE> -o wide

list pods by status:

kubectl get pods -A --sort-by=.status.startTime | egrep "Running | Completed"

use the "-v" flag to get pods that are not in the given state:

kubectl get pods -A --sort-by=.status.startTime | egrep -v "Running | Completed"

list images used to generate all the pods in a namespace:

kubectl get pods -n <NAMESPACE> -o jsonpath="{..image}" | tr -s '[[:space:]]' '\n' | sort | uniq -c

get the status of a single pod:

kubectl get pod <POD> -n <NAMESPACE> -o jsonpath="Status: {.status.phase}{'\n'}"

List Node Information

get all pods on a specific node:

kubectl get pods --all-namespaces -o wide --field-selector spec.nodeName=<NODE>

get nodes with taints:

kubectl get nodes -o custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,TAINTS:.spec.taints --no-headers

list nodes on a specific provisioner:

kubectl get node -l karpenter.sh/provisioner-name=<PROVISIONER>

list all nodes with their provisioners:

kubectl get node -o=custom-columns="Name:.metadata.name,Provisioner:.metadata.labels.karpenter\.sh/provisioner-name"

Describe

kubectl describe pod <POD> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl describe ingress <INGRESS_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl describe deployment <DEPLOY> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl describe configmap <CONFIGMAP> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl describe externalsecret.external-secrets.io/<EXTERNALSECRET> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl describe endpoints <ENDPOINT> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl describe deploy <DEPLOY> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl describe configmap <CONFIGMAP> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl describe pod <POD> -n <NAMESPACE> | grep Tolerations

kubectl describe node <NODE> | grep Taints

Logs

read the most recent log entries on a pod:

kubectl logs <POD> -n <NAMESPACE>

tail pod logs:

kubectl logs -f <POD> -n <NAMESPACE>

tail logs for deployments:

kubectl logs -f deployment/<DEPLOY> -n <NAMESPACE>

tail while filtering for a specific a string:

kubectl logs -f deployment/<DEPLOY> -n <NAMESPACE> | grep "<STRING>"

List All Resources in a Namespace

kubectl get all -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl api-resources --verbs=list --namespaced -o name | xargs -n 1 kubectl get --show-kind --ignore-not-found -n <NAMESPACE>

for i in `kubectl api-resources -n <NAMESPACE> | awk '{print $1}'`; do kubectl get $i; done

kubectl get all,cm,secret,ing -A -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl get pods --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp -n <NAMESPACE>

When a namespace is stuck as "Terminating", this command (with kubectl 1.11+) will show you what resources remain in the namespace:

kubectl api-resources --verbs=list --namespaced -o name | xargs -n 1 kubectl get --show-kind --ignore-not-found -n <NAMESPACE>

Rolling Restarts

kubectl get deploy -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl rollout restart deploy <DEPLOY> -n <NAMESPACE>

Cron Jobs

1. get a list of defined cronjobs:

   kubectl get cronjobs -n <NAMESPACE>
   

2. select one of those cronjobs and create a new instance of it:

   kubectl create job --from=cronjob/<CRONJOB> <NEW_JOB_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE>
   

3. get a list of the running jobs to see the new job:

   kubectl get jobs -n <NAMESPACE>
   

4. once your manually created job is complete, delete it:

   kubectl delete job <NEW_JOB_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE>
   

Working with Secrets

kubectl create secret generic <SECRET_NAME> --from-literal=<SECRET_KEY>='<SECRET_VALUE_STRING>' -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl get secrets -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl describe secrets/<SECRET_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl get secret <SECRET_NAME> -o jsonpath='{.data}'
    {"<SECRET_KEY>":"<SECRET_VALUE_ENCODED>"}
echo '<SECRET_VALUE_ENCODED>==' | base64 --decode
   <SECRET_VALUE_STRING>

Resources Monitoring

kubectl top pod <POD> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl top pods -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl get pods <POD> -n <NAMESPACE> -o jsonpath='{range .spec.containers[*]}{"Container Name: "}{.name}{"\n"}{"Requests:"}{"\n"}{"\t"}{"CPU:"}{.resources.requests.cpu}{"\n"}{"\t"}{"Memory:"}{.resources.requests.memory}{"\n"}{"\t"}{"Ephemeral Storage:"}{.resources.requests.ephemeral-storage}{"\n"}{"Limits:"}{"\n"}{"\t"}{"CPU:"}{.resources.limits.cpu}{"\n"}{"\t"}{"Memory:"}{.resources.limits.memory}{"\n"}{"\t"}{"Ephemeral Storage:"}{.resources.limits.ephemeral-storage}{"\n"}{"\n"}{end}'

sort by MEMORY(bytes) ascending:

kubectl top pods -n <NAMESPACE> | sort --key 2 -b | awk 'NR<2{print $0;next}{print $0| "sort --key 3 --numeric -b"}'

Port Forwarding

kubectl port-forward -n <NAMESPACE> <POD> <LOCAL_PORT>:<REMOTE_PORT>

kubectl port-forward -n <NAMESPACE> deployment/<DEPLOY> :<REMOTE_PORT>

Copy

copy a file from a pod/container to a local path:

kubectl cp <NAMESPACE>/<POD>:/tmp/foo /tmp/bar

kubectl cp <NAMESPACE>/<POD>:/path/on/the/pod .

Edit a Resource

kubectl edit deploy/<DEPLOY> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl edit ns <NAMESPACE>

Exec into a pod

kubectl exec -it <POD> -n <NAMESPACE> /bin/bash

kubectl exec -n <NAMESPACE> --stdin --tty <POD> --container <POD> -- /bin/sh

Delete

kubectl delete ingress <INGRESS> -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl delete ns <NAMESPACE>

force delete:

kubectl delete pod <POD> --grace-period=0 --force -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl get pods -n <NAMESPACE> |  grep Terminating | awk '{print $1}' | xargs kubectl delete pod -n <NAMESPACE> --grace-period=0 —force

bulk delete pods with a specific status:

kubectl get pods -A --sort-by=.status.startTime | egrep ContainerStatusUnknown | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kubectl delete pod -n <NAMESPACE>

kubectl get pods -A --sort-by=.status.startTime | egrep OOMKilled | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kubectl delete pod -n <NAMESPACE> --grace-period=0 —force

Scale

kubectl scale deployment/<DEPLOY> -n <NAMESPACE> --replicas=<REPLICA_COUNT>

Have questions or want to chat about this post? Hit me up on Mastadon or Bluesky