Mastering Three Core Methods to Manage Kubernetes Resources

1. Three Basic Methods to Manage Kubernetes Core Resources

Imperative (CLI) management

Declarative (manifest) management

GUI (Web) management

2. Imperative Resource Management

Using kubectl commands to create, view, and delete namespaces, deployments, pods, and services.

2.1 Namespace Management

kubectl get namespaces
kubectl get ns
kubectl get all -n default
kubectl create namespace app
kubectl delete namespace app

2.2 Deployment Management

# Create deployment
kubectl create deployment nginx-dp --image=harbor.od.com/public/nginx:v1.7.9 -n kube-public

# View deployment
kubectl get deployment -n kube-public
kubectl describe deployment nginx-dp -n kube-public

# Scale deployment
kubectl scale deployment nginx-dp --replicas=2 -n kube-public

# Delete deployment
kubectl delete deployment nginx-dp -n kube-public

2.3 Service Management

# Expose deployment as a Service
kubectl expose deployment nginx-dp --port=80 -n kube-public

# View Service details
kubectl describe svc nginx-dp -n kube-public
kubectl get svc -n kube-public

3. Declarative Resource Management

Resources are defined in YAML/JSON manifests and applied with kubectl.

3.1 View Manifest

kubectl get pod nginx-dp-xxxxx -o yaml -n kube-public
kubectl get svc nginx-dp -o yaml -n kube-public

3.2 Create Manifest

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: nginx-ds
  labels:
    app: nginx-ds
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  ports:
  - port: 80
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 80
  selector:
    app: nginx-ds

3.3 Apply Manifest

kubectl apply -f nginx-ds-svc.yaml
# Force apply if needed
kubectl apply -f nginx-ds-svc.yaml --force

3.4 Edit Manifest Online

kubectl edit svc nginx-ds
# Change port, save and exit

3.5 Delete Manifest

# Imperative delete
kubectl delete svc nginx-ds

# Declarative delete
kubectl delete -f nginx-ds-svc.yaml

4. Summary

kubectl is the primary CLI for interacting with the Kubernetes API server.

Imperative commands are quick for ad‑hoc tasks but become verbose for complex operations.

Declarative manifests provide version‑controlled, repeatable configurations.

GUI tools offer visual management but still rely on the same API calls.