kubectl (Kubernetes Command-Line Tool)

kubectl is the official command-line interface (CLI) for Kubernetes, used to interact with and manage Kubernetes clusters. It allows users to deploy applications, inspect and manage cluster resources, view logs, execute commands in running containers, and troubleshoot workloads by communicating directly with the Kubernetes API server.

Features of kubectl:

• Official and lightweight CLI for managing Kubernetes clusters.
• Supports declarative configuration using YAML and JSON manifests.
• Manage core Kubernetes resources such as Pods, Deployments, Services, and Namespaces.
• Provides cluster inspection, debugging, and monitoring capabilities.
• Execute commands inside running containers and stream logs.
• Works with all Kubernetes distributions including EKS, GKE, AKS, and on-prem clusters.

kubectl Usage

$ sudo su
$ kubectl version --client   # Check kubectl version