Kubernetes User Guide: Managing Applications: Prerequisites

To deploy and manage applications on Kubernetes, you’ll use the Kubernetes command-line tool, kubectl. It lets you inspect your cluster resources, create, delete, and update components, and much more. You will use it to look at your new cluster and bring up example apps.

Install kubectl

You can find it in the release tar bundle, under platforms//; or if you build from source, kubectl should be either under _output/local/bin// or _output/dockerized/bin//.

Next, make sure the kubectl tool is in your path, assuming you download a release:

# OS X
export PATH=<path/to/kubernetes-directory>/platforms/darwin/amd64:$PATH

# Linux
export PATH=<path/to/kubernetes-directory>/platforms/linux/amd64:$PATH

Configure kubectl

In order for kubectl to find and access the Kubernetes cluster, it needs a kubeconfig file, which is created automatically when creating a cluster using kube-up.sh (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.

Installing Kubectl

If you downloaded a pre-compiled release, kubectl should be under platforms/<os>/<arch>.

If you built from source, kubectl should be either under _output/local/bin/<os>/<arch> or _output/dockerized/bin/<os>/<arch>.

The kubectl binary doesn't have to be installed to be executable, but the rest of the walkthrough will assume that it's in your PATH.

The simplest way to install is to copy or move kubectl into a dir already in PATH (e.g. /usr/local/bin). For example:

# OS X
$ sudo cp kubernetes/platforms/darwin/amd64/kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
# Linux
$ sudo cp kubernetes/platforms/linux/amd64/kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

Configuring Kubectl

If you used ./cluster/kube-up.sh to deploy your Kubernetes cluster, kubectl should already be locally configured.

By default, kubectl configuration lives at ~/.kube/config.

If your cluster was deployed by other means (e.g. a getting started guide) your kubectl client will typically be configured during that process. If for some reason your kubectl client is not yet configured, check out kubeconfig-file.md.

Making sure you're ready

Check that kubectl is properly configured by getting the cluster state:

$ kubectl cluster-info

If you see a url response, you are ready to go.

What's next?

Learn how to launch and expose your application.