Kubernetes has become the de facto standard for container orchestration. Whether you are managing a small cluster or a production-grade deployment spanning multiple regions, these 100+ commands will cover everything you need to operate Kubernetes effectively.<\/p>\n
Master these commands and you can manage any Kubernetes cluster with confidence.<\/strong> We publish cheat sheets and references for DevOps tools \u2014 check out our full product catalog<\/a> for guides on Linux, Docker, Git, Python, and more.<\/p>\n For a complete DevOps toolkit covering Docker, Kubernetes, CI\/CD, and server automation, see the All-8 Bundle ($69)<\/a> \u2014 8 premium products at 40% off.<\/p>\n Also see:<\/strong> Our 80+ Essential Docker Commands<\/a> guide for container basics, and the 100 Essential Linux Commands<\/a> guide for server administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Complete reference of 100+ essential Kubernetes commands. Covers pods, deployments, services, configmaps, secrets, nodes, debugging, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux-devops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexawebservers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexawebservers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexawebservers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexawebservers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alexawebservers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexawebservers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexawebservers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexawebservers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}kubectl cluster-info<\/code> \u2014 Display cluster information.
\nkubectl cluster-info dump<\/code> \u2014 Dump cluster state for debugging.
\nkubectl version<\/code> \u2014 Show client and server versions.
\nkubectl config view<\/code> \u2014 Show merged kubeconfig settings.
\nkubectl config get-contexts<\/code> \u2014 List available contexts.
\nkubectl config current-context<\/code> \u2014 Show current context.
\nkubectl config use-context my-cluster<\/code> \u2014 Switch to a different context.
\nkubectl api-resources<\/code> \u2014 List all available API resources.
\nkubectl api-versions<\/code> \u2014 List API versions available on the cluster.
\nkubectl get componentstatuses<\/code> \u2014 Check control plane components health.<\/p>\n2. Pod Operations<\/h2>\n
kubectl get pods<\/code> \u2014 List all pods in the current namespace.
\nkubectl get pods -A<\/code> \u2014 List pods across all namespaces.
\nkubectl get pods -o wide<\/code> \u2014 List pods with more details (node, IP).
\nkubectl describe pod my-pod<\/code> \u2014 Detailed info about a pod.
\nkubectl logs my-pod<\/code> \u2014 View pod logs.
\nkubectl logs -f my-pod<\/code> \u2014 Follow pod logs in real time.
\nkubectl logs my-pod -c my-container<\/code> \u2014 Logs from a specific container.
\nkubectl exec -it my-pod -- \/bin\/bash<\/code> \u2014 Open a shell inside a pod.
\nkubectl port-forward my-pod 8080:80<\/code> \u2014 Forward local port to pod port.
\nkubectl cp my-pod:\/path\/to\/file .\/local-file<\/code> \u2014 Copy files from\/to pods.
\nkubectl top pod<\/code> \u2014 Show CPU\/memory metrics for pods.
\nkubectl delete pod my-pod<\/code> \u2014 Delete a pod.<\/p>\n3. Deployments<\/h2>\n
kubectl get deployments<\/code> \u2014 List deployments.
\nkubectl describe deployment my-deploy<\/code> \u2014 Detailed info.
\nkubectl create deployment my-deploy --image=nginx<\/code> \u2014 Create a deployment.
\nkubectl scale deployment my-deploy --replicas=5<\/code> \u2014 Scale replicas.
\nkubectl autoscale deployment my-deploy --min=2 --max=10 --cpu-percent=80<\/code> \u2014 Auto-scale.
\nkubectl set image deployment\/my-deploy nginx=nginx:1.25<\/code> \u2014 Update image.
\nkubectl rollout status deployment\/my-deploy<\/code> \u2014 Check rollout status.
\nkubectl rollout history deployment\/my-deploy<\/code> \u2014 Show rollout history.
\nkubectl rollout undo deployment\/my-deploy<\/code> \u2014 Rollback to previous version.
\nkubectl rollout restart deployment\/my-deploy<\/code> \u2014 Restart all pods gracefully.<\/p>\n4. Services and Networking<\/h2>\n
kubectl get services<\/code> \u2014 List services.
\nkubectl describe service my-service<\/code> \u2014 Service details.
\nkubectl expose deployment my-deploy --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer<\/code> \u2014 Expose as service.
\nkubectl get endpoints<\/code> \u2014 List service endpoints.
\nkubectl get ingress<\/code> \u2014 List ingress resources.
\nkubectl describe ingress my-ingress<\/code> \u2014 Ingress details.<\/p>\n5. Configuration and Secrets<\/h2>\n
kubectl get configmaps<\/code> \u2014 List ConfigMaps.
\nkubectl create configmap my-config --from-file=config.properties<\/code> \u2014 Create from file.
\nkubectl create configmap my-config --from-literal=key=value<\/code> \u2014 Create from literal.
\nkubectl get secrets<\/code> \u2014 List secrets.
\nkubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-literal=password=abc123<\/code> \u2014 Create secret.
\nkubectl get secret my-secret -o jsonpath=\"{.data.password}\" | base64 -d<\/code> \u2014 Decode secret.<\/p>\n6. Namespaces<\/h2>\n
kubectl get namespaces<\/code> \u2014 List namespaces.
\nkubectl create namespace my-namespace<\/code> \u2014 Create a namespace.
\nkubectl config set-context --current --namespace=my-namespace<\/code> \u2014 Switch default namespace.
\nkubectl delete namespace my-namespace<\/code> \u2014 Delete a namespace and all resources.<\/p>\n7. Volumes and Storage<\/h2>\n
kubectl get pv<\/code> \u2014 List persistent volumes.
\nkubectl get pvc<\/code> \u2014 List persistent volume claims.
\nkubectl describe pvc my-claim<\/code> \u2014 PVC details.
\nkubectl get storageclasses<\/code> \u2014 List storage classes.<\/p>\n8. Nodes and Cluster Administration<\/h2>\n
kubectl get nodes<\/code> \u2014 List cluster nodes.
\nkubectl describe node my-node<\/code> \u2014 Node details and resource usage.
\nkubectl top node<\/code> \u2014 Show CPU\/memory usage per node.
\nkubectl cordon my-node<\/code> \u2014 Mark node as unschedulable.
\nkubectl uncordon my-node<\/code> \u2014 Mark node as schedulable.
\nkubectl drain my-node --ignore-daemonsets<\/code> \u2014 Safely evict all pods from a node.
\nkubectl label node my-node disktype=ssd<\/code> \u2014 Add a label to a node.<\/p>\n9. Debugging and Troubleshooting<\/h2>\n
kubectl get events --sort-by=.lastTimestamp<\/code> \u2014 List events sorted by time.
\nkubectl get events -A --watch<\/code> \u2014 Watch events across all namespaces.
\nkubectl logs --previous my-pod<\/code> \u2014 Logs from previous container instance (after crash).
\nkubectl debug my-pod --image=ubuntu -- \/bin\/bash<\/code> \u2014 Debug running pod with ephemeral container.
\nkubectl run test-pod --image=alpine --rm -it -- \/bin\/sh<\/code> \u2014 Run temporary debug pod.
\nkubectl top pod -A --sort-by=cpu<\/code> \u2014 Pods sorted by CPU usage.<\/p>\n10. Daily kubectl Shortcuts<\/h2>\n
alias k=kubectl<\/code> \u2014 Use k instead of kubectl.
\nsource <(kubectl completion bash)<\/code> \u2014 Enable bash completion.
\nkubectl explain pod.spec.containers<\/code> \u2014 Docs for any resource field.
\nkubectl api-resources --verbs=list --namespaced -o name | xargs -n1 kubectl get -A<\/code> \u2014 List ALL resources across all namespaces.<\/p>\n
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