Kubernetes CLI Reference

Core Resource Management

View Resources

• kubectl get – List resources

  • Basic: kubectl get pods -n default
  • Wide output: kubectl get pods nginxpod -o wide (shows node placement, pod IP)
  • Label selector: kubectl get pods -l app=k8s-web-app
  • Node details:
    • kubectl get pods -o wide reveals the nodes where the pods are running from and ip details for the pods.
    • kubectl describe pod pod-name reveals image used, node details, number of containers deployed, find why a pod launch failed (under events section) and other details
  • Container status: Output like 1/1 or 1/2 indicates running containers / total containers; values like 0/1 signal container failures

• kubectl describe – Detailed resource inspection

  • kubectl describe pod my-pod (includes events section for failure diagnostics)
  • kubectl describe deployment

Create Resources

• kubectl create – Imperative creation from file or stdin (fails if resource exists)

  • kubectl create -f deployment.yaml
  • Imperative deployment: kubectl create deployment nginx --image=nginx
  • Custom command: kubectl create deployment hello-node --image=registry.k8s.io/e2e-test-images/agnhost:2.53 -- /agnhost netexec --http-port=8080

• kubectl apply – Declarative configuration (creates or updates)

  • kubectl apply -f service.yaml
  • Update image: Modify image name in YAML, then kubectl apply -f pod.yaml

• kubectl run – Direct pod creation (deprecated for deployments)

  • kubectl run nginx --image=nginx (as of v1.18+, creates pod only; not a deployment)
  • Dry-run YAML generation: kubectl run redis --image=redis --dry-run=client -o yaml

Modify Resources

• kubectl edit – Live resource editing in default editor
  • kubectl edit deployment my-deploy

Remove Resources

• kubectl delete – Delete by name or file
  • kubectl delete pod my-pod
  • kubectl delete deployment hello-node
  • kubectl delete service hello-node
  • File-based: kubectl delete -f deployment.yaml

Debugging & Container Access

• kubectl logs – Retrieve container logs

  • kubectl logs my-pod -c my-container
  • kubectl logs webpod

• kubectl exec – Execute commands inside containers

  • kubectl exec -it my-pod -- bash

• kubectl port-forward – Forward local port to pod/service

  • kubectl port-forward svc/my-service 8080:80

• kubectl top – Display resource utilization metrics

  • kubectl top nodes

• kubectl cp – Copy files between local and containers

  • kubectl cp ./local.txt my-pod:/remote.txt

Deployment & Rollout Management

• kubectl rollout status – Monitor rollout progress

  • kubectl rollout status deployment/my-deploy

• kubectl rollout history – View revision history

  • kubectl rollout history deployment/my-deploy

• kubectl rollout undo – Rollback to previous revision

  • kubectl rollout undo deployment/my-deploy

Scaling & Service Exposure

• kubectl scale – Manual replica scaling

  • kubectl scale deployment my-deploy --replicas=3

• kubectl autoscale – Configure horizontal pod autoscaling

  • kubectl autoscale deployment my-deploy --min=2 --max=5 --cpu-percent=80

• kubectl expose – Create service for pods or deployments

  • Expose deployment: kubectl expose deployment my-deploy --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer
  • Expose pod: kubectl expose pod webpod --type=NodePort --port=80
  • NodePort example: kubectl expose deployment hello-node --type=NodePort --port=8080 --target-port=8080

• ‘kubectl get rc (replicacontroller) - lists all replica controllers created

Metadata & Object Updates

• kubectl annotate – Add or update annotations

  • kubectl annotate pod my-pod description="test pod"

• kubectl label – Add or update labels

  • kubectl label pod my-pod env=prod

• kubectl patch – Partial object updates

  • kubectl patch deployment my-deploy -p '{"spec":{"replicas":4}}'

• kubectl set image – Update container image

  • kubectl set image deployment/my-deploy container-name=new-image:tag

• kubectl set resources – Configure resource limits/requests

  • kubectl set resources deployment/my-deploy -c=container-name --limits=cpu=200m,memory=512Mi

Configuration & Context Management

• kubectl config view – Display kubeconfig file contents
• kubectl config get-contexts – List available contexts
• kubectl config set-context – Modify context attributes
• kubectl config use-context – Switch active context

Cluster Security & Information

• kubectl auth can-i – Verify RBAC permissions

  • kubectl auth can-i create deployments --namespace=production

• kubectl version – Display client and server version information

• kubectl cluster-info – Show cluster endpoint addresses

Node Operations

• kubectl get nodes – List cluster nodes

  • kubectl get nodes -o wide (includes OS image, kernel version, container runtime)

• kubectl cordon – Mark node unschedulable

  • kubectl cordon node-name

• kubectl uncordon – Mark node schedulable

  • kubectl uncordon node-name

• kubectl drain – Evacuate node (reschedules pods, marks unschedulable)

  • kubectl drain node-name --ignore-daemonsets

Advanced Utilities

• kubectl get events – View recent cluster events
• kubectl apply -k – Apply kustomization directories
• kubectl explain – Interactive API resource documentation
  • kubectl explain pod.spec.containers
• kubectl proxy – Start API server proxy
• kubectl wait – Block until resource meets condition
  • kubectl wait --for=condition=Ready pod/my-pod --timeout=60s

ReplicaController And ReplicaSet

kubectl create -f rs-deploy.yaml - creates the rs

kubectl get replicaset - list of rs created

kubectl delete replicaset myrsap - delete the rs. you can also specify multiple resources in the delete command.

kubectl replace -f rs-deploy.yaml - replace or update the rs

kubectl scale --replicas=4 -f rs-deploy.yaml update the replicaset count

kubectl get replicaset - list all replicasets

kubectl get replicationcontroller - lists all replicacontoller

kubectl describe replicaset rs-deploy.yaml - or kubectl describe replicaset myapp-rs - get more information about replicaset

kubectl describe pod podname - To get full details about pod. If it is crashed, it has the details why it crashed and image details.

kubectl explain resourcname - Explains the resource name given. Ex: kubectl explain rc explains about replicacontroller.

kubectl get all - lists all resources including pods, rs, rc and other resources created on that machine.

Deployments Rollback and update:

Create: kubectl create -f deployment-definition.yml

Get: kubectl get deployments

Update: kubectl apply -f deployment-definition.yml kubectl set image deployment/myapp-deployment nginx=nginx:1.9.1

Status: kubectl rollout status deployment/myapp-deployment kubectl rollout history deployment/myapp-deployment

Rollback: kubectl rollout undo deployment/myapp-deployment

Resource Type Shortcuts

Imperative vs Declarative Command Behavior

kubectl create

• Creates resource only if it does not exist; fails on duplicate
• One-time imperative operation - because you tell Kubernetes “create this object now,” and it does exactly that once, without remembering that spec for future updates
• Does not track configuration changes for future updates

kubectl apply

• Creates resource if absent, or updates to match provided configuration
• Declarative workflow with last-applied-configuration tracking: it stores a “last-applied-configuration” annotation and uses that to calculate changes on subsequent kubectl apply runs, making it idempotent and suitable for iterative updates from the same manifest file.
• Idempotent; supports iterative updates

Pro Tips

• Use kubectl explain <resource>.<field> for interactive API documentation
• Inspect pod events via kubectl describe pod <name> to diagnose startup failures
• Generate YAML manifests with --dry-run=client -o yaml before applying
• Container status ratios in kubectl get pods indicate deployment health