Practical Kubernetes with kubectl and Minikube Getting Started with kubectl

Learning Objective: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to explain what kubectl is, describe its purpose, and recognize its basic syntax and common commands.

What is `kubectl`?

kubectl (pronounced in several ways—see below) is the command-line tool used to interact with Kubernetes clusters. It’s your gateway to managing Kubernetes, allowing you to:

View information about your cluster.
Make changes like deploying applications, managing services, scaling workloads, and updating configurations.

Under the hood, kubectl works as a wrapper for Kubernetes API calls. This means every kubectl command is converted into an HTTP request sent to the Kubernetes API running on your cluster.

How do you pronounce `kubectl`?

The pronunciation of kubectl is a hot topic!

But here are three commonly accepted ways to say it:

cube-control ✅
cube-see-tee-ell ✅
cube-cuttle ✅

Use any of these, and you’ll be in good company.

kubectl Pronunciation Options Diagram

Understanding `kubectl` syntax

The structure of kubectl commands is simple and intuitive. Most commands follow this pattern:

kubectl [command] [TYPE] [NAME] [flags]

Command: What you want to do (ex: get, apply, describe).
TYPE: The type of resource you’re working with (ex: pod, service).
NAME: (Optional) The specific resource you want to target.
Flags: (Optional) Additional options to customize the command.

For example:

kubectl get pods

This command retrieves a list of all running pods in your cluster.

Common kubectl commands

Here are some frequently used commands. You don’t need to memorize these now—we’ll practice many of them in our hands-on lesson:

For general information

Command	Description
`kubectl -h`	Displays help and a list of available commands.
`kubectl cluster-info`	Shows details about your cluster.
`kubectl version`	Displays the current version of `kubectl` and the cluster version.

For managing resources

Command	Description
`kubectl apply -f /path/to/file.yml`	Applies the configuration from a YAML file to the cluster.
`kubectl get pods`	Lists all pods running in the cluster.
`kubectl describe pod <pod-name>`	Displays detailed information about a specific pod, including its IP address, status, and health checks.
`kubectl get services`	Lists all services running in the cluster.
`kubectl describe service <service-name>`	Provides detailed information about a specific service.

In the next section, we’ll dive into hands-on activities where you’ll use kubectl to interact with a Kubernetes cluster.

Ready to get started? Let’s move on to the practical lesson!