THE

DEFINITIVE
CHEAT
SHEET

KUBECTL
WWW.THECHIEF.IO
⭐Kubectl Sheetcheat
Note: This cheatsheet is part of Learn Kubernetes by Building 10 projects ebook.

Pods

List all pods in namespace <default>

View a pod in watch mode
View all pods in watch mode
List sroted pods
List pods using a different output
Formatting output
List all pods in a namespace
List all pods in all namespaces
Create from an image
Run pod in an interactive shell mode
Run a command after creating a pod
Executing a command in a running pod
Create a pod: dry run mode (without really creating it)
Patch a pod
Create from a YAML file
Export YAML from the dry run mode
Create from STDIN
Create multiple resources from STDIN
Create in a namespace
Create in a namespace from a file
Delete pods
Get pod logs
List all container id of init container of all pods
Show metrics for a given pod
Show metrics for a given pod and all its containers
Deployments
Create a deployment
Create a deployment with a predefined replica number
Create a deployment with a predefined replica number and opening a port
Create a deployment with a predefined replica number, opening a port and exposing it
Get a deployment
Watch a deployment
List all deployments
Update the image
Scale a deployment
Dry run and YAML output
Create a deployment from a file
Edit a deployment
Rollback deployment
Get rollout history
Roll back to a previous revision
Execute deployment rollout operations
Port Forwarding
 Choosing localhost port
Listening on the same port
Listen on a random port locally
Listen on port on localhost + another IP
Listen on a forwarded port on all addresses
Services

Create a service
Delete service(s)
Describe a service
Nodes
Get node
Get a specific node
Show node metrics
Get external IPs of cluster nodes
Describe commands with verbose output
Check which nodes are ready
Mark a node as unschedulable
Drain a node for maintenance
Mark a node as schedulable
Namespaces

List namespaces
List or describe a namespace
Create namespace
Delete namespace
Service accounts
List service accounts
Get a service account
Create a service account
Delete a service account
Describe a service account
Events

List events
List sorted events
List formatted events
Documentation
Get the documentation for pod manifests
Get the documentation for service manifests
Describing resources

Editing resources
Edit a service
Edit a service with your favorite text editor
Deleting Resources

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

Delete pods and services with same names
Delete pods and services with a custom label
Delete all pods and services in a namespace
Delete all resources in a namespace
All get commands
Abbreviations / Short forms of resource types
 Verbose Kubectl

Cluster
Display addresses of the master and services
Dump cluster state to STDOUT
Dump cluster state to a file
Compares the current cluster state against the state that the cluster would be in if the
manifest was applied
List all images running in a cluster
Kubectl context

Show merged kubeconfig settings

Use multiple kubeconfig

Get a list of users

Display the first user
Get the password for the "admin" user

Display the current context

Display list of contexts
Set the default context to <cluster>
Sets a user entry in kubeconfig

Sets a user with a client key

Sets a user with basic auth

Sets a user with client certificate

Set a context utilizing a specific config file

Set a context utilizing a specific username and namespace.

Alias
Create an alias on *nix
Create an alias on Windows
Kubectl imperative (create) vs declarative (apply)

Create
Apply

Pods

List all pods in namespace <default>

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=
Print a table using a comma separated list of custom columns
<spec>

-o=custom-columns-file= Print a table using the custom columns template in the

<filename> <filename> file

-o=json Output a JSON formatted API object

-o=jsonpath=<template> Print the fields defined in a jsonpath expression

-o=jsonpath-file= Print the fields defined by the jsonpath expression in the

<filename> <filename> file

-o=name Print only the resource name and nothing else

Output in the plain-text format with any additional

-o=wide
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.

Useful steady state information about the service and important log
--v=2 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.