Kubectl

External

• kubectl commands: https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubectl/kubectl-commands

Internal

• Kubernetes Operations
• Kubernetes Concepts
• Connect to an EKS Cluster with kubectl

Overview

kubectl is the main Kubernetes command line tool, used to send REST API requests with JSON-formatted payloads into the API server.

Installation

https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl/

Linux

Download the latest version:

curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/`curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt`/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl

Make the binary executable:

chmod +x ./kubectl

Move the binary into the PATH

sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

Mac

Download the latest version:

curl -LO "https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/$(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl"

Then place into /usr/local/bin and make it executable.

Configuration

.kube config

Rescue Access

On a master, as root:

/usr/local/bin/kubectl  --kubeconfig=/etc/kubernetes/admin.conf get pods

Commands

• port-forward
• expose
• version
• config
• apply, create, edit, patch, kustomize, delete
• wait
• cp
• exec
• auth
• run
• scale

Options

-v

kubectl -v=<log-level> ...

where the log level is an integer between 0 and 10.

--as

--as allows to pass a username to impersonate for the operation. In this context, a "username" can also be the name of a service account in the format "system:serviceaccount:<namespace-name>:<service-account-name>":

kubectl --as system:serviceaccount:blue:blue-sa apply -f ./pod.yaml

This is particularly useful when experimenting with permission and authorization, by using kubectl auth can-i.

--token

Bearer Tokens in Kubernetes

--raw

Access APIs.

kubectl get --raw /apis/metrics.k8s.io | jq

Obtaining Information about the API Server

API Server URL

kubectl config view -o json | jq -r '.clusters[] | select(.name | contains("docker")) | .cluster.server'

API Server Bearer Token

kubectl get secrets -o jsonpath="{.items[?(@.metadata.annotations['kubernetes\.io/service-account\.name']=='default')].data.token}"|base64 --decode

Obtaining Information about API Objects

get

kubectl get

kubectl get and kubectl describe mask sensitive information such as a secret's content to protect it from being exposed accidentally to an onlooker or from being stored in a terminal log.

Output in YAML Format

The "-o yaml" option instructs get to return the full copy of the object's manifest from the cluster store. The output is divided into a .spec section, which represents the desired state and the .status section, which represents the current observed state.

kubectl get -o yaml ...

Get the Manifest for an Existing Object

The manifest can be used to recreate the object:

kubectl get pod pod-name --export -o yaml

Note that --export is deprecated and will be removed in the future so find an equivalent.

Get with Selector

Use -l|--selector to specify a selector (label query) to filter on. The expression supports '=', '==', and '!='.

kubectl get pod -l color=green,shape=square

--field-selector

kubectl get pods --all-namespaces -o wide --field-selector spec.nodeName=<node>

Custom Columns

Custom columns are specified by <HEADER>:<JSONPATH-EXPRESSION>,...

kubectl get ... -o custom-columns='KIND:kind,NAMESPACE:metadata.namespace,NAME:metadata.name,SERVICE_ACCOUNTS:subjects[?(@.kind=="ServiceAccount")].name'

JSONPath Support

https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/jsonpath/

https://goessner.net/articles/JsonPath/

Removing Leading and Trailing Single Quotes

... | sed -e 's/^'\''//' > ...

Get an Individual Attribute Only

TODO: https://gist.github.com/so0k/42313dbb3b547a0f51a547bb968696ba

kubectl ... -o jsonpath="{.status.phase}"

kubectl ... -o jsonpath="{.items[?(@.spec.unschedulable)].metadata.name}"

Alternative, to explore and document:

kubectl get pods  --no-headers -o custom-columns=\":metadata.name\" ...

Filter Elements of an Array based on a Key Value

We assume that the elements of the array are maps, which contain the specified key:

kubectl ... -o jsonpath="{.users[?(@.name=="blue")].user.password}"
kubectl get pod ... -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.volumes[?(@.name=="vault")].hostPath.path}' 2>/dev/null

Select and Combine Two or More Elements

kubectl get pod \
-o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.volumes[?(@.name=="A")].hostPath.path}'+'{.items[0].spec.volumes[?(@.name=="B")].hostPath.path}'

returns "/some/path/a+/some/path/b"

Same Element from Multiple Resources

kubectl get pod -o jsonpath='{.items[*].metadata.name}'

TODO

kubectl get pods -o=jsonpath='{.items[?(@.metadata.labels.name=="web")].metadata.name}'

Iterate over the Elements of an Array

kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath='{.items[*]}'

Iterate over the Elements of an Array and Select a Specific Key

kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath='{.items[*].status}'

Filter by an element:

kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath='{.items[*].status.addresses[?(@.type=="InternalIP")]}'

Print the element "address"

kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath='{.items[*].status.addresses[?(@.type=="InternalIP")].address}'

describe

The 'describe' command provides a multi-line overview of an object. It includes important object lifecycle events.

kubectl describe

POSTing a Manifest

kubectl apply -f filename.yaml

Port Fowarding

 while ! kubectl -n my-namespace port-forward service/my-service 8787:8787; do sleep 1; done