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Step-by-step instructions for performing operations with Kubernetes.

Documentation for Kubernetes v1.7 is no longer actively maintained. The version you are currently viewing is a static snapshot. For up-to-date documentation, see the latest version.

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Install and Set Up kubectl

Here are a few methods to install kubectl.

Use the Kubernetes command-line tool, kubectl, to deploy and manage applications on Kubernetes. Using kubectl, you can inspect cluster resources; create, delete, and update components; and look at your new cluster and bring up example apps.

Before you begin

Use a version of kubectl that is the same version as your server or later. Using an older kubectl with a newer server might produce validation errors.

Install kubectl binary via curl

  1. Download the latest release with the command:

    curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/`curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt`/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl

    To download a specific version, replace the $(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt) portion of the command with the specific version.

    For example, to download version v1.7.3 on MacOS, type:

    curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/v1.7.3/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl

  2. Make the kubectl binary executable.

    chmod +x ./kubectl

  3. Move the binary in to your PATH.

    sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

  1. Download the latest release with the command:

    curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/$(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl

    To download a specific version, replace the $(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt) portion of the command with the specific version.

    For example, to download version v1.7.3 on Linux, type:

    curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/v1.7.3/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl

  2. Make the kubectl binary executable.

    chmod +x ./kubectl

  3. Move the binary in to your PATH.

    sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

  1. Download the latest release v1.7.3 from this link.

    Or if you have curl installed, use this command:

    curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/v1.7.3/bin/windows/amd64/kubectl.exe

    To find out the latest stable version (for example, for scripting), take a look at https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt.

  2. Add the binary in to your PATH.

Download as part of the Google Cloud SDK

kubectl can be installed as part of the Google Cloud SDK.

  1. Install the Google Cloud SDK.

  2. Run the following command to install kubectl:

    gcloud components install kubectl
  3. Run kubectl version to verify that the version you’ve installed is sufficiently up-to-date.

Install with snap on Ubuntu

kubectl is available as a snap application.

  1. If you are on Ubuntu or one of other Linux distributions that support snap package manager, you can install with:

    sudo snap install kubectl --classic

  2. Run kubectl version to verify that the version you’ve installed is sufficiently up-to-date.

Install with Homebrew on macOS

  1. If you are on macOS and using Homebrew package manager, you can install with:

    brew install kubectl

  2. Run kubectl version to verify that the version you’ve installed is sufficiently up-to-date.

Install with Chocolatey on Windows

  1. If you are on Windows and using Chocolatey package manager, you can install with:

    choco install kubernetes-cli
  2. Run kubectl version to verify that the version you’ve installed is sufficiently up-to-date.

  3. Configure kubectl to use a remote Kubernetes cluster:

    cd C:\users\yourusername (Or wherever your %HOME% directory is)
mkdir .kube
cd .kube
touch config

Edit the config file with a text editor of your choice, such as Notepad for example.

Configure kubectl

In order for kubectl to find and access a Kubernetes cluster, it needs a kubeconfig file, which is created automatically when you create a cluster using kube-up.sh or successfully deploy a Minikube cluster. See the getting started guides for more about creating clusters. If you need access to a cluster you didn’t create, see the Sharing Cluster Access document. By default, kubectl configuration is located at ~/.kube/config.

Check the kubectl configuration

Check that kubectl is properly configured by getting the cluster state:

kubectl cluster-info

If you see a URL response, kubectl is correctly configured to access your cluster.

If you see a message similar to the following, kubectl is not correctly configured:

The connection to the server <server-name:port> was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

Enabling shell autocompletion

kubectl includes autocompletion support, which can save a lot of typing!

The completion script itself is generated by kubectl, so you typically just need to invoke it from your profile.

Common examples are provided here. For more details, consult kubectl completion -h.

On Linux, using bash

To add kubectl autocompletion to your current shell, run source <(kubectl completion bash).

To add kubectl autocompletion to your profile, so it is automatically loaded in future shells run:

echo "source <(kubectl completion bash)" >> ~/.bashrc

On macOS, using bash

On macOS, you will need to install bash-completion support via Homebrew first:

## If running Bash 3.2 included with macOS
brew install bash-completion
## or, if running Bash 4.1+
brew install bash-completion@2

Follow the “caveats” section of brew’s output to add the appropriate bash completion path to your local .bashrc.

If you’ve installed kubectl using the Homebrew instructions then kubectl completion should start working immediately.

If you have installed kubectl manually, you need to add kubectl autocompletion to the bash-completion:

kubectl completion bash > $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectl

The Homebrew project is independent from Kubernetes, so the bash-completion packages are not guaranteed to work.

Using Oh-My-Zsh

When using Oh-My-Zsh, edit the ~/.zshrc file and update the plugins= line to include the kubectl plugin.

plugins=(git zsh-completions kubectl)

What’s next

Learn how to launch and expose your application.

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