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kubectl Commands

sloth-kubernetes embeds kubectl for Kubernetes operations. All standard kubectl commands work through the CLI.

Overview​

The embedded kubectl:

  • Uses the cluster's kubeconfig automatically from the Pulumi stack
  • No separate kubectl installation required
  • Full kubectl functionality available
  • Stack-aware: specify the stack name once, kubeconfig is auto-retrieved

Basic Usage​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl <stack-name> <command>

The stack name is the name of your Pulumi stack (e.g., production, staging, my-cluster).

Cluster Information​

Get Nodes​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get nodes

Output:

NAME        STATUS   ROLES                  AGE   VERSION
masters-1   Ready    control-plane,master   5d    v1.29.0+rke2r1
masters-2   Ready    control-plane,master   5d    v1.29.0+rke2r1
masters-3   Ready    control-plane,master   5d    v1.29.0+rke2r1
workers-1   Ready    worker                 5d    v1.29.0+rke2r1
workers-2   Ready    worker                 5d    v1.29.0+rke2r1

Get Detailed Node Info​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get nodes -o wide

Describe a Node​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster describe node masters-1

Get Cluster Info​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster cluster-info

Pod Management​

List All Pods​

# All namespaces
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get pods -A

# Specific namespace
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get pods -n kube-system

Get Pod Details​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster describe pod nginx-7d9b8c6b5-x2k9m -n default

View Pod Logs​

# Current logs
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster logs nginx-7d9b8c6b5-x2k9m

# Follow logs
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster logs -f nginx-7d9b8c6b5-x2k9m

# Previous container logs
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster logs nginx-7d9b8c6b5-x2k9m --previous

# All containers in pod
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster logs nginx-7d9b8c6b5-x2k9m --all-containers

Execute Commands in Pod​

# Interactive shell
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster exec -it nginx-7d9b8c6b5-x2k9m -- /bin/bash

# Run single command
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster exec nginx-7d9b8c6b5-x2k9m -- cat /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Deployments​

Create Deployment​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster create deployment nginx --image=nginx

Scale Deployment​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster scale deployment nginx --replicas=3

Update Deployment​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster set image deployment/nginx nginx=nginx:1.25

Rollout Status​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster rollout status deployment/nginx

Rollback Deployment​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster rollout undo deployment/nginx

Services​

Create Service​

# Expose deployment as LoadBalancer
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster expose deployment nginx --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer

# Expose as ClusterIP
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster expose deployment nginx --port=80 --type=ClusterIP

List Services​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get services

Get Service Details​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster describe service nginx

Apply Manifests​

Apply from File​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster apply -f deployment.yaml

Apply from URL​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster apply -f https://example.com/manifest.yaml

Apply from Directory​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster apply -f ./manifests/

Delete Resources​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster delete -f deployment.yaml

Namespaces​

List Namespaces​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get namespaces

Create Namespace​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster create namespace production

Set Default Namespace​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster config set-context --current --namespace=production

ConfigMaps and Secrets​

Create ConfigMap​

# From literal values
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster create configmap app-config \
  --from-literal=DATABASE_URL=postgres://db:5432/app

# From file
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster create configmap app-config --from-file=config.json

Create Secret​

# From literal values
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster create secret generic db-credentials \
  --from-literal=username=admin \
  --from-literal=password=secret123

# From file
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster create secret generic tls-cert \
  --from-file=cert.pem --from-file=key.pem

View Secret (base64 decoded)​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get secret db-credentials -o jsonpath='{.data.password}' | base64 -d

Resource Management​

Get Resource Usage​

# Node resources
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster top nodes

# Pod resources
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster top pods -A

Get Events​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'

Debug Node​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster debug node/workers-1 -it --image=busybox

Node Operations​

Cordon Node​

Prevent new pods from being scheduled:

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster cordon workers-1

Drain Node​

Safely evict pods for maintenance:

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster drain workers-1 --ignore-daemonsets --delete-emptydir-data

Uncordon Node​

Allow scheduling again:

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster uncordon workers-1

Troubleshooting​

Pod Not Starting​

# Check pod status
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster describe pod <pod-name>

# Check events
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get events --field-selector involvedObject.name=<pod-name>

Service Not Reachable​

# Check endpoints
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get endpoints <service-name>

# Check service selector matches pod labels
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get pods --show-labels

Resource Limits​

# Check resource requests/limits
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster describe pod <pod-name> | grep -A 5 "Limits:"

# Check node capacity
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster describe node <node-name> | grep -A 10 "Allocated resources:"

Common Operations​

Quick Health Check​

# Check nodes
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get nodes

# Check system pods
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get pods -n kube-system

# Check events
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get events -A --sort-by='.lastTimestamp' | tail -20

Deploy Application​

# Create deployment
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster create deployment myapp --image=myapp:v1

# Expose service
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster expose deployment myapp --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer

# Check status
sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster get pods,svc

View Logs Across Pods​

sloth-kubernetes kubectl my-cluster logs -l app=nginx --all-containers

Kubeconfig​

The kubeconfig is automatically retrieved from the specified Pulumi stack. You no longer need to manually export or manage kubeconfig files.

Export Kubeconfig (Optional)​

If you need to use external tools, you can still export the kubeconfig:

# Save to file for a specific stack
sloth-kubernetes kubeconfig my-cluster > ~/.kube/config

# Use with standard kubectl
export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config
kubectl get nodes

Use with External kubectl​

sloth-kubernetes kubeconfig my-cluster > cluster.kubeconfig
kubectl --kubeconfig=cluster.kubeconfig get nodes

Next Steps​