Kubectl – Configuration Guide

[kissgyorgy]

I find the kubectx and kubens tools invaluable for switching contexts and namespaces quickly: https://github.com/ahmetb/kubectx

[remram]

I've just been using this function in my bashrc:

    kubea(){
        if [ "$#" = 1 ]; then
            KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/configs/"$1"
        else
            ls -1 ~/.kube/configs/
        fi
    }

That way I can "activate" a specific config the same way I activate my Python virtualenv, for a specific terminal. I also add the basename of the config to my prompt.

    kubea myproject-PROD

[neximo64]

I've always been confused with kubectx. How do I actually add a seperate yaml file (say the one I download with my browser from DigitalOcean) into the context?

[echelon]

These are amazing! Thanks for sharing.

[mlthoughts2018]

My strong advice is do not ever rely on use-context or any similar abilities to change implicit state.

You should absolutely always be typing out huge, verbose commands like kubectl —context my-context -n my-namespace <some commands> ...

The opportunity for tragic error when you have implicit context or namespace settings applied is just too great.

[longcommonname]

Or you can signify the context using shell prompt and use kube rbac to give read only permissions instead of letting people mess with your prod cluster.

[rtempaccount1]

kube-ps1, kubectx and kubens can help quite a bit here. kube-ps1 to give you a visual indication of current context and the others to make switching easier.

You can also explicitly add namespaces to manifests, which help avoid applying to the wrong namespace.

[joeskyyy]

Agreed. With autocomplete I find myself being able to make those long commands painless while making sure I'm being explicit. Only took me one time running the wrong command against the wrong cluster to drill that one into my brain forever haha

[jaimehrubiks]

I like to have one config file per cluster and point kubeconfig to all these files. Then I use a bash function to select the cluster by name. My zsh shell previews the cluster name on the right when I start typing k, kubectl, helm and similar... So it is harder for me to make a mistake

[mastegizmo]

I think this is the Best method - it is quite safe, I’m doing the same

[jml78]

starship.rs will show your current context all the time. Personally I have that and the git plugins configured

[pepemon]

What does exactly this post add to what have been already described in the official documentation[1]?

[1] https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/access-application-cluster/...

[nunez]

Does anyone else hate that we have to deal with Kubeconfigs at all?

[freedomben]

It's a mixed bag. On one hand it's a pain when you have to switch back and forth. On the other hand it's awesome that all the state is in one, human-readable file and can easily be duplicated or pointed somewhere else, etc.

I primarily use OpenShift which fixes part of it, and with a few bash aliases the rest are pretty painless as well.

[pgwhalen]

I’m a little confused, what would the alternative be?

[ex3ndr]

Super annoying why ever have very specific way to merge multiple contexts. Google utils writes to this file one way, other tools another way. So weird and so not-transparent.

[anurag]

Kubie makes it easier (and safer) to manage multiple contexts because it makes each shell independent: https://github.com/sbstp/kubie