Kubernetes kubectl Cheatsheet

Command sequences for kubectl pod scheduling, namespace configs, logs diagnostics, deployments, and cluster management.

Pod Management

kubectl get pods -n [ns]

List all pods within the specified namespace.

kubectl get pods -n production

kubectl logs -f [pod]

Stream logs from the specified pod running on the cluster.

kubectl logs -f my-web-app-843a

kubectl describe pod [name]

Inspect events, resource limits, and metadata of a pod.

kubectl describe pod my-web-app-843a

kubectl exec -it [pod] -- bash

Run interactive terminal shell commands inside pods.

kubectl exec -it api-pod-9932 -- /bin/bash

kubectl delete pod [name]

Force delete a failing pod container inside namespaces.

kubectl delete pod api-pod-9932

kubectl apply -f [file.yaml]

Apply configurations to cluster nodes using local YAML maps.

kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml

kubectl scale deployment [dep] --replicas=[count]

Scale pod replication factors on active deployment scripts.

kubectl scale deployment web-api --replicas=5

kubectl expose deployment [dep] --port=[port]

Expose deployment ports to generate internal services.

kubectl expose deployment web-api --port=8080 --target-port=80

kubectl get configmaps

List configuration maps inside the active namespace.

kubectl get configmaps -n production

kubectl create secret generic [name] --from-literal=k=v

Generate generic secrets dynamically inside cluster registers.

kubectl create secret generic db-pass --from-literal=password=foo