Edit This Page

Install and Set Up 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; look at your new cluster; and bring up example apps.

• Before you begin
• Install kubectl
• Install kubectl binary using native package management
• Install with snap on Ubuntu
• Install with Homebrew on macOS
• Install with Macports on macOS
• Install with Powershell from PSGallery
• Install on Windows using Chocolatey or scoop
• Download as part of the Google Cloud SDK
• Install kubectl binary using curl
• Configure kubectl
• Check the kubectl configuration
• Enabling shell autocompletion
• What's next

Before you begin

You must use a kubectl version that is within one minor version difference of your cluster. For example, a v1.2 client should work with v1.1, v1.2, and v1.3 master. Using the latest version of kubectl helps avoid unforeseen issues.

Install kubectl

Here are a few methods to install kubectl.

Install kubectl binary using native package management

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https
curl -s https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://apt.kubernetes.io/ kubernetes-xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y kubectl

cat <<EOF > /etc/yum.repos.d/kubernetes.repo
[kubernetes]
name=Kubernetes
baseurl=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/repos/kubernetes-el7-x86_64
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/yum-key.gpg https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/rpm-package-key.gpg
EOF
yum install -y kubectl

Install with snap on Ubuntu

If you are on Ubuntu or one of other Linux distributions that support snap package manager, kubectl is available as a snap application.

1. Switch to the snap user and run the installation command:

   sudo snap install kubectl --classic
   

2. Test to ensure the version you installed is sufficiently up-to-date:

   kubectl version
   

Install with Homebrew on macOS

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

1. Run the installation command:

   brew install kubernetes-cli
   

2. Test to ensure the version you installed is sufficiently up-to-date:

   kubectl version
   

Install with Macports on macOS

If you are on macOS and using Macports package manager, you can install kubectl with Macports.

1. Run the installation command:

   sudo port selfupdate
   sudo port install kubectl
   

2. Test to ensure the version you installed is sufficiently up-to-date:

   kubectl version
   

Install with Powershell from PSGallery

If you are on Windows and using Powershell Gallery package manager, you can install and update kubectl with Powershell.

1. Run the installation commands (making sure to specify a DownloadLocation):

   Install-Script -Name install-kubectl -Scope CurrentUser -Force
   install-kubectl.ps1 [-DownloadLocation <path>]
   

   Note:

   If you do not specify a `DownloadLocation`, `kubectl` will be installed in the user's temp Directory.
   

   The installer creates $HOME/.kube and instructs it to create a config file

2. Test to ensure the version you installed is sufficiently up-to-date:

   kubectl version
   

   Note:

   Updating the installation is performed by rerunning the two commands listed in step 1.
   

Install on Windows using Chocolatey or scoop

To install kubectl on Windows you can use either Chocolatey package manager or scoop command-line installer.

choco install kubernetes-cli

scoop install kubectl

1. Test to ensure the version you installed is sufficiently up-to-date:

   kubectl version
   

2. Navigate to your home directory:

   cd %USERPROFILE%
   

3. Create the .kube directory:

   mkdir .kube
   

4. Change to the .kube directory you just created:

   cd .kube
   

5. Configure kubectl to use a remote Kubernetes cluster:

   New-Item config -type file
   

   Note:

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

Download as part of the Google Cloud SDK

You can install kubectl as part of the Google Cloud SDK.

1. Install the Google Cloud SDK.

2. Run the kubectl installation command:

   gcloud components install kubectl
   

3. Test to ensure the version you installed is sufficiently up-to-date:

   kubectl version
   

Install kubectl binary using curl

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 or not able to connect to a Kubernetes cluster.

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

For example, if you are intending to run a Kubernetes cluster on your laptop (locally), you will need a tool like minikube to be installed first and then re-run the commands stated above.

If kubectl cluster-info returns the url response but you can’t access your cluster, to check whether it is configured properly, use:

kubectl cluster-info dump

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

On CentOS Linux, you may need to install the bash-completion package which is not installed by default.

yum install bash-completion -y

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 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 Zsh

If you are using zsh edit the ~/.zshrc file and add the following code to enable kubectl autocompletion:

if [ $commands[kubectl] ]; then
  source <(kubectl completion zsh)
fi

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

plugins=(kubectl)

What's next

Learn how to launch and expose your application.

Feedback

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for the feedback. If you have a specific, answerable question about how to use Kubernetes, ask it on Stack Overflow. Open an issue in the GitHub repo if you want to report a problem or suggest an improvement.