☸️ Kubernetes (K8s) Commands Cheat Sheet

A comprehensive, production-ready reference guide for Kubernetes CLI (kubectl) commands, structured by domain and usage pattern.

📌 Table of Contents

Cluster Info & Health
Pod Management
Deployments & Workloads
Services & Networking
ConfigMaps & Secrets
Namespaces
Nodes & Resource Monitoring
Debugging & Troubleshooting
RBAC & Security
Imperative Shortcuts & Useful One-Liners

1. Cluster Info & Health

Commands to inspect the cluster control plane, context, and overall status.

Command	Description
`kubectl cluster-info`	Display endpoint information for the master and services.
`kubectl version --short`	Show client and server Kubernetes versions.
`kubectl config get-contexts`	List all available cluster contexts.
`kubectl config current-context`	Display the current active context.
`kubectl config use-context <context-name>`	Switch to a different cluster context.
`kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=<namespace>`	Set default namespace for the current context.
`kubectl get componentstatuses` (or `get cs`)	Check health of control plane components (etcd, scheduler, controller-manager).

2. Pod Management

Pods are the smallest execution units in Kubernetes.

Listing & Inspecting

# List all pods in default namespace
kubectl get pods

# List pods with detailed information (IP, Node name, status)
kubectl get pods -o wide

# List pods across ALL namespaces
kubectl get pods --all-namespaces

# Get live stream of pod status changes
kubectl get pods -w

# Describe a specific pod to view event logs and detailed state
kubectl describe pod <pod-name>

# Output pod manifest as YAML
kubectl get pod <pod-name> -o yaml

Creating & Managing

# Run an imperative NGINX pod
kubectl run nginx --image=nginx:alpine

# Run an interactive temporary debugging pod
kubectl run -i --tty busybox --image=busybox --restart=Never -- sh

# Delete a pod immediately (force remove)
kubectl delete pod <pod-name> --grace-period=0 --force

3. Deployments & Workloads

Deployments manage declarative updates for Pods and ReplicaSets.

Task	Command
Create Deployment	`kubectl create deployment web-app --image=nginx:1.21`
List Deployments	`kubectl get deployments`
Scale Replicas	`kubectl scale deployment web-app --replicas=5`
Autoscale (HPA)	`kubectl autoscale deployment web-app --min=2 --max=10 --cpu-percent=80`
Update Image	`kubectl set image deployment/web-app nginx=nginx:1.23`
View Rollout History	`kubectl rollout history deployment/web-app`
Rollback Update	`kubectl rollout undo deployment/web-app`
Pause Rollout	`kubectl rollout pause deployment/web-app`
Resume Rollout	`kubectl rollout resume deployment/web-app`
Check Rollout Status	`kubectl rollout status deployment/web-app`

4. Services & Networking

Services expose Pods to internal or external traffic.

# Expose a deployment as a ClusterIP service (Internal)
kubectl expose deployment web-app --port=80 --target-port=8080 --type=ClusterIP --name=web-service

# Expose a deployment as a NodePort service (External via Node IP)
kubectl expose deployment web-app --port=80 --type=NodePort --name=web-service-node

# Expose as LoadBalancer (Cloud-managed external IP)
kubectl expose deployment web-app --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer --name=web-lb

# List all services with assigned IPs and Ports
kubectl get svc -o wide

# Get Endpoint mappings for services
kubectl get endpoints

# List Ingress rules
kubectl get ingress

5. ConfigMaps & Secrets

Store configuration data and confidential credentials decoupled from container images.

ConfigMaps

# Create ConfigMap from literal values
kubectl create configmap app-config --from-literal=DB_HOST=10.0.0.1 --from-literal=DB_PORT=5432

# Create ConfigMap from a file
kubectl create configmap app-config --from-file=config.properties

# View ConfigMap content
kubectl get configmap app-config -o yaml

Secrets

# Create generic Secret from literal values
kubectl create secret generic db-pass --from-literal=password='SuperSecret123!'

# Create TLS secret from key/cert files
kubectl create secret tls web-tls --cert=path/to/tls.crt --key=path/to/tls.key

# View secret data (Base64 encoded)
kubectl get secret db-pass -o yaml

6. Namespaces

Isolate resources within a physical cluster.

# List all namespaces
kubectl get namespaces

# Create a new namespace
kubectl create namespace staging

# Run a pod in a specific namespace
kubectl run test-pod --image=nginx -n staging

# Get resources across a specific namespace
kubectl get all -n staging

# Delete a namespace (Deletes all resources inside it!)
kubectl delete namespace staging

7. Nodes & Resource Monitoring

Monitor cluster node health and resource utilization.

# List all cluster nodes
kubectl get nodes -o wide

# Describe node details (Capacity, Allocatable, Taints, Conditions)
kubectl describe node <node-name>

# Cordon a node (Mark as unschedulable)
kubectl cordon <node-name>

# Uncordon a node (Mark as schedulable)
kubectl uncordon <node-name>

# Drain node gracefully in preparation for maintenance
kubectl drain <node-name> --ignore-daemonsets --delete-emptydir-data

# View resource usage (CPU/Memory) for Nodes (Requires Metrics Server)
kubectl top nodes

# View resource usage (CPU/Memory) for Pods
kubectl top pods --all-namespaces

8. Debugging & Troubleshooting

Essential diagnostics for failing workloads.

# Fetch container logs
kubectl logs <pod-name>

# Stream live container logs (Follow mode)
kubectl logs -f <pod-name>

# Fetch logs for a specific container in a multi-container pod
kubectl logs <pod-name> -c <container-name>

# Fetch logs of a previously crashed container instance
kubectl logs <pod-name> --previous

# Execute interactive shell command inside a running pod
kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -- /bin/sh

# Port-forward a local port to a pod port (Local testing)
kubectl port-forward pod/<pod-name> 8080:80

# Port-forward to a service
kubectl port-forward svc/<service-name> 8080:80

# View detailed events ordered by timestamp
kubectl get events --sort-by='.metadata.creationTimestamp'

9. RBAC & Security

Check permissions and manage access controls.

# Check if current user can perform an action
kubectl auth can-i create pods
kubectl auth can-i delete nodes

# Check if a specific service account can perform an action
kubectl auth can-i get secrets --as=system:serviceaccount:default:my-sa

# View ServiceAccounts
kubectl get serviceaccounts (or `get sa`)

# View Roles and ClusterRoles
kubectl get roles,clusterroles

# View RoleBindings and ClusterRoleBindings
kubectl get rolebindings,clusterrolebindings

10. Imperative Shortcuts & Useful One-Liners

Fast track commands to quickly generate manifests and clean up resources.

DRY-RUN Manifest Generation (No cluster creation)

# Generate Pod YAML
kubectl run nginx --image=nginx --dry-run=client -o yaml > pod.yaml

# Generate Deployment YAML
kubectl create deployment web --image=nginx --dry-run=client -o yaml > deployment.yaml

# Generate Service YAML
kubectl create service clusterip web --tcp=80:8080 --dry-run=client -o yaml > service.yaml

Rapid Cleanup & Management

# Delete all evicted pods
kubectl get pods --all-namespaces | grep Evicted | awk '{print $2 " --namespace=" $1}' | xargs kubectl delete pod

# Quickly delete resources declared in a manifest directory
kubectl delete -f ./manifests/

# Apply all manifests in a directory recursively
kubectl apply -f ./manifests/ -R