🚀 Mastering Kubernetes: 20+ Daily kubectl Commands Every Engineer Should Know

Whether you’re debugging a pod or scaling deployments, having the right commands at your fingertips can save hours of troubleshooting.

Here’s your quick-reference guide to essential kubectl commands used by DevOps, SREs, and Cloud Engineers every single day:

In below examples, assume "services" is the namespace given for your micro-services

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🔹 Context & Cluster Navigation

• kubectl config get-contexts – List all available contexts

• kubectx <env-name> – Switch between environments

🔹 Nodes & Namespaces

• kubectl get nodes – View all cluster nodes

• kubectl get namespaces – List all namespaces

🔹 Pods & Deployments

• kubectl -n services get pod <pod-name> – Get specific pod details

• kubectl -n services get pods – List all pods in a namespace

• kubectl -n services delete pod <pod-name> – Delete a specific pod

• kubectl -n services get pods -o wide | grep ½ – Filter for unhealthy pods

🔹 Detailed Views

• -o wide – Add node-level details

• -o yaml – See full YAML output

• kubectl describe pod <pod-name> -n services – Inspect pod specs

🔹 Inside the Pod

• kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -n services -- /bin/bash – SSH into a pod

• kubectl logs <pod-name> -c install -f -n services – View Init container logs

🔹 Scaling & Rollouts

• kubectl scale deploy <pod-name> --replicas=3 -n services – Manual scaling

• kubectl rollout restart deployment <pod-name> -n services – Restart a service

🔹 HPA & Canary Checks

• kubectl get hpa <pod-name> -n services – Horizontal Pod Autoscaler status

• kubectl describe canary <pod-name> -n services – Inspect a canary deployment

• kubectl get canary -n services – List all canary-enabled pods

🔹 Logs & Troubleshooting (with Stern)

• stern -n services <pod-name> -c <app-name> -t --since 1m – Tail recent logs

• stern -n services geolayers-api-primary -c geolayers-api -t --since 1m | grep '<text>' – Filter logs with grep

🔹 Consul & Vault Checks

• kubectl get pods -n configuration – View Consul/Vault status

• stern -n configuration <name> – Stream logs from Vault

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📘 Bonus: Official kubectl Cheat Sheet

💬 Which of these commands saved you recently — or is there a favorite one missing from the list?

Drop it in the comments and let’s build the ultimate K8s cheat sheet together. 👇

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