Kubernetes

kubectl Advanced

Advanced kubectl commands for debugging and cluster management.

36 commands

Windows MacOS Linux

#orchestration #debugging

Download PDF

Debugging

Show detailed pod information

kubectl describe pod my-pod

View logs for specific container

kubectl logs my-pod -c my-container

View logs from previous container instance

kubectl logs my-pod --previous

Open shell in running pod

kubectl exec -it my-pod -- /bin/sh

Create debug container in pod

kubectl debug my-pod --image=busybox

Show pod resource usage sorted by memory

kubectl top pods --sort-by=memory

Show events for a specific pod

kubectl events --for pod/my-pod

Resource Management

kubectl apply -f manifest.yaml --dry-run=server # Server-side dry run

Show diff before applying changes

kubectl diff -f manifest.yaml

kubectl patch deployment my-dep -p '{"spec":{"replicas":3}}' # Patch a resource inline

Add label to a pod

kubectl label pods my-pod env=prod

Add annotation to a pod

kubectl annotate pod my-pod note="test"

List all available resource types

kubectl api-resources

Rollouts

kubectl rollout status deployment/my-dep # Watch rollout progress

kubectl rollout history deployment/my-dep # View rollout history

Rollback to previous revision

kubectl rollout undo deployment/my-dep

kubectl rollout undo deployment/my-dep --to-revision=2 # Rollback to specific revision

kubectl rollout restart deployment/my-dep # Restart all pods in deployment

Pause a rollout

kubectl rollout pause deployment/my-dep

Port Forwarding

Forward local port to pod port

kubectl port-forward pod/my-pod 8080:80

Forward local port to service port

kubectl port-forward svc/my-svc 8080:80

kubectl port-forward deploy/my-dep 8080:80 # Forward local port to deployment

Run kubectl proxy to API server

kubectl proxy

Contexts

List all available contexts

kubectl config get-contexts

Show current context

kubectl config current-context

Switch to a different context

kubectl config use-context my-cluster

kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=dev # Set default namespace

Show current context config only

kubectl config view --minify

JSONPath

kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{.items[*].metadata.name}' # Get all pod names

kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath='{.items[*].status.addresses[0].address}' # Get node IPs

kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{"\n"}{end}' # List pods one per line

kubectl get pod my-pod -o jsonpath='{.status.phase}' # Get pod phase

kubectl get pods -o custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,STATUS:.status.phase # Custom columns output

Quick Commands

Create debug container in a running pod