DevOps & Cloud · Cheatsheet

Kubernetes Commands Cheatsheet

kubectl essentials: pods, deployments, services, secrets, scaling, debugging, and RBAC

72 commands 9 sections

Cluster & Context

kubectl cluster-info Display cluster endpoint and services info
kubectl config view Show merged kubeconfig settings
kubectl config current-context Show the current context
kubectl config use-context <ctx> Switch to a different context
kubectl config get-contexts List all available contexts
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=<ns> Set default namespace for current context
kubectl get nodes List all nodes in the cluster
kubectl get nodes -o wide List nodes with extra details (IP, OS, etc.)
kubectl api-resources List all supported resource types

kubectl get deployments List all deployments
kubectl describe deployment <name> Show deployment details and events
kubectl create deployment <name> --image=<img> Create a deployment
kubectl set image deployment/<name> <ctr>=<img>:<tag> Update container image in deployment
kubectl rollout status deployment/<name> Watch rollout progress
kubectl rollout history deployment/<name> Show rollout revision history
kubectl rollout undo deployment/<name> Rollback to previous revision
kubectl rollout undo deployment/<name> --to-revision=<n> Rollback to specific revision
kubectl rollout restart deployment/<name> Restart all pods in deployment
kubectl delete deployment <name> Delete a deployment

kubectl get svc List all services
kubectl get svc -A List services across all namespaces
kubectl describe svc <name> Show service details and endpoints
kubectl expose deployment <name> --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer Expose deployment as a service
kubectl port-forward svc/<name> 8080:80 Forward local port to service
kubectl port-forward pod/<name> 8080:80 Forward local port to pod
kubectl get ingress List all ingress resources
kubectl get endpoints <svc> Show pod IPs behind a service

kubectl get configmaps List all ConfigMaps
kubectl create configmap <name> --from-file=<path> Create ConfigMap from file
kubectl create configmap <name> --from-literal=key=val Create ConfigMap from literal values
kubectl get secrets List all secrets
kubectl create secret generic <name> --from-literal=k=v Create a generic secret
kubectl create secret tls <name> --cert=tls.crt --key=tls.key Create a TLS secret
kubectl get secret <name> -o jsonpath="{.data.key}" | base64 -d Decode and view a secret value
kubectl describe configmap <name> Show ConfigMap contents and metadata

kubectl logs <pod> Show logs for a pod
kubectl logs <pod> -f Follow (stream) pod logs
kubectl logs <pod> -c <container> Show logs for specific container in pod
kubectl logs <pod> --previous Show logs from previous crashed container
kubectl logs -l app=<label> Show logs for all pods matching label
kubectl describe pod <name> Show events and status (debug crashes)
kubectl get events --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp List cluster events sorted by time
kubectl top pods Show CPU/memory usage per pod
kubectl top nodes Show CPU/memory usage per node
kubectl debug <pod> -it --image=busybox Attach debug container to a pod

kubectl scale deployment/<name> --replicas=3 Scale deployment to 3 replicas
kubectl autoscale deployment/<name> --min=2 --max=10 --cpu-percent=80 Create HorizontalPodAutoscaler
kubectl get hpa List Horizontal Pod Autoscalers
kubectl apply -f <file.yaml> Apply config from YAML file
kubectl apply -f <directory>/ Apply all YAML files in directory
kubectl diff -f <file.yaml> Preview changes before applying
kubectl delete -f <file.yaml> Delete resources defined in YAML file
kubectl get <resource> -o yaml Export resource definition as YAML
kubectl explain <resource> Show documentation for a resource type

https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/ Kubernetes kubectl reference: resource operations, configuration, and generated command help.