Kubernetes is a portable, extensible, open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services, that facilitates both declarative configuration and automation. It has a large, rapidly growing ecosystem. Kubernetes services, support, and tools are widely available. Kubernetes provides you with a framework to run distributed systems resiliently. It takes care of scaling and failover for your application, provides deployment patterns, canary deployments, and more. In this blog post, I will mention Kubernetes commands which we need for most of the use-cases.

I will list down kubectl commands in the sections below as a quick reference to work with Kubernetes.

• List Resources
• Create Resources
• Update Resources
• Display the State of Resources
• Delete Resources
• Execute Command
• Print Container Logs
• Modify Kubeconfig Files

List Resources

• Get list of all namespaces

  kubectl get namespaces
  

• Get list of all pods

  kubectl get pods
  

• Get list of all pods with detailed information like IP, Node Name etc...

  kubectl get pods -o wide
  

• Get list of all pods running on a particular node server

  kubectl get pods --field-selector=spec.nodeName=[server-name]
  

• Get list of all replication controllers and services

  kubectl get replicationcontroller,services
  

• Get list of daemonsets

  kubectl get daemonset
  

Create Resources

• Create a new namespace

  kubectl create namespace [namespace-name]
  

• Create a new namespace from JSON or YAML file.

  kubectl create –f [filename]
  

Update Resources

To apply or update a resource use the kubectl apply command.

• Create a new service with the definition contained in [service-config].yaml

  kubectl apply -f [service-config].yaml
  

• Create a new replication controller with the definition contained in [controller-config].yaml

  kubectl apply -f [controller-config].yaml
  

• Create the objects defined in any .yaml, .yml, or .json file in a directory

  kubectl apply -f [yaml-file/directory-name]
  

• Edit a service config

  kubectl edit svc/[service-name]
  

  Above command opens the file in your default editor. To choose another editor, specify it in front of the command:

  KUBE_EDITOR=”[editor-name]” kubectl edit svc/[service-name]
  

Display the State of Resources

• Get Details about Particular Node

  kubectl describe nodes [node-name]
  

• Get Details about a Particular pod

  kubectl describe pods [pod-name]
  

• Get Details about a Particular pod whose name and type are listed in pod.json

  kubectl describe –f pod.json
  

• Get Details about a Particular pod managed by a specific replication controller

  kubectl describe pods [replication-controller-name]
  

• Get Details about all pods

  kubectl describe pods
  

Delete Resources

• Delete a pod using the name and type mentioned in pod.yaml

  kubectl delete -f pod.yaml
  

• Delete all pods and services with a specific label

  kubectl delete pods,services -l [label-key]=[label-value]
  

• Delete all pods

  kubectl delete pods --all
  

Execute Command

• Get output from a command run on the first container in a pod

  kubectl exec [pod-name] -- [command]
  

• Get output from a command run on a specific container in a pod

  kubectl exec [pod-name] -c [container-name] -- [command]
  

• Run /bin/bash from a specific pod. The received output comes from the first container

  kubectl exec -ti [pod-name] -- /bin/bash
  

Print Container Logs

• Print Logs from Pod

  kubectl logs [pod-name]
  

• Stream Logs from Pod

  kubectl logs -f [pod-name]
  

• Tail Logs from Pod (Print last 200 logs from pod)

  kubectl logs --tail=200 [pod-name]
  

Modify Kubeconfig Files

kubectl config command lets you view and modify kubeconfig files.

• Get Current Context

  kubectl config current-context
  

• Set cluster entry in kubeconfig

  kubectl config set-cluster [cluster-name] --server=[server-name]
  

• Unset an entry in kubeconfig

  kubectl config unset [property-name]
  

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