Essential Kubernetes Ops Cheat Sheet: Quick Commands & Tips

Core Concepts

Pod – the smallest deployable unit, a short‑lived group of containers.

Deployment – manages Pods, handling replica count, rolling updates, and rollbacks.

Service – provides a stable IP/DNS entry point and load‑balances traffic to Pods.

Namespace – logical partition of resources (e.g., dev / test / prod).

ConfigMap / Secret – decouple configuration and sensitive data from workloads.

Volume – external storage attached to Pods.

PV / PVC – PersistentVolume supplies storage; PersistentVolumeClaim requests it.

kubectl Command Categories

1. Create, Read, Update, Delete (CRUD)

kubectl get pods -o wide

kubectl apply -f app.yaml

kubectl delete pod <name>

kubectl edit deployment <name>

2. Troubleshooting

kubectl describe pod <name>

kubectl logs -f <pod-name> [-c container]

kubectl exec -it <pod> -- /bin/bash

3. Rolling Update / Rollback

kubectl rollout status deploy/<name>

kubectl rollout history deploy/<name>

kubectl rollout undo deploy/<name>

kubectl rollout restart deploy/<name>

4. Scaling

kubectl scale deploy/my-app --replicas=3

5. Port Forwarding

kubectl port-forward svc/my-app 8080:80

6. Cluster & Node Management

kubectl top nodes

kubectl cordon <node>

kubectl drain <node> --ignore-daemonsets --delete-emptydir-data

kubectl uncordon <node>

7. Multi‑Cluster Contexts

kubectl config get-contexts

kubectl config use-context <name>

Operational Tips

Generate a Deployment YAML quickly

kubectl create deploy nginx --image=nginx --dry-run=client -o yaml > nginx.yaml

List Pods with a specific label kubectl get pods -l app=nginx Force‑delete a stuck Pod

kubectl delete pod <name> --force --grace-period=0

Enter the first Pod in the namespace

kubectl exec -it $(kubectl get po -o name | head -1) -- /bin/bash

Quick‑Lookup Command Table

Cluster information : kubectl cluster-info Node status : kubectl get nodes -o wide Deploy an application : kubectl apply -f app.yaml Deployment status : kubectl get deploy,rs,po -l app=my-app Service view : kubectl get svc -o wide Live logs : kubectl logs -f deploy/my-app Enter container : kubectl exec -it deploy/my-app -- bash Scale replicas : kubectl scale deploy/my-app --replicas=5 Update image : kubectl set image deploy/my-app my-app=nginx:1.20 Rollback : kubectl rollout undo deploy/my-app Resource usage : kubectl top pods --containers Config management : kubectl get cm,secret Storage management : kubectl get pv,pvc Drain node :

kubectl drain <node> --ignore-daemonsets

Recommendations

Bookmark this cheat sheet for fast command lookup.

Practice with kubectl get -o yaml to deepen understanding of resource definitions.

In production, prefer kubectl apply -f to manage YAML files and avoid undocumented manual edits.