kubectl get for listing resources in Kubernetes - Commands & Configuration

Introduction

When you want to see what is running or available in your Kubernetes cluster, you use the kubectl get command. It lists resources like pods, services, or deployments so you can check their status and details.

When you want to check if your application pods are running correctly.

When you need to see all services available in your cluster to understand network access.

When you want to verify the status of deployments after applying changes.

When you want to list all namespaces to see how your cluster is organized.

When you want to quickly get details about any Kubernetes resource by name or type.

Commands

This command lists all pods in the current namespace, showing their names, readiness, status, restarts, and age. It helps you see if your pods are running or have issues.

Terminal

kubectl get pods

Expected Output

NAME           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE

my-app-pod-1   1/1     Running   0          10m

my-app-pod-2   1/1     Running   0          10m

This command lists all services in the current namespace, showing their names, types, cluster IPs, external IPs, ports, and age. It helps you understand how your apps are exposed.

Terminal

kubectl get services

Expected Output

NAME         TYPE        CLUSTER-IP     EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)    AGE

my-app-svc   ClusterIP   10.96.0.1      <none>        80/TCP     15m

This command lists all deployments in the current namespace, showing their names, ready replicas, total replicas, updated replicas, and age. It helps you check if your deployments are healthy.

Terminal

kubectl get deployments

Expected Output

NAME        READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE

my-app      2/2     2            2           20m

This command lists all pods in the kube-system namespace, which is where Kubernetes system components run. It helps you check the health of core cluster services.

Terminal

kubectl get pods -n kube-system

Expected Output

NAME                               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE

coredns-558bd4d5db-7k9qv           1/1     Running   0          1h

etcd-minikube                      1/1     Running   0          1h

→

-n - Specify the namespace to list resources from

Key Concept

If you remember nothing else from this pattern, remember: kubectl get shows you the current state of Kubernetes resources so you can monitor and troubleshoot your cluster.

Common Mistakes

Running kubectl get without specifying the resource type

kubectl get requires a resource type like pods or services to know what to list; otherwise, it shows an error.

Always specify the resource type, for example, kubectl get pods or kubectl get services.

Not specifying the namespace when resources are in a different namespace

kubectl get defaults to the current namespace, so it won't show resources in other namespaces unless specified.

Use the -n flag to specify the namespace, for example, kubectl get pods -n kube-system.

Summary

kubectl get lists Kubernetes resources like pods, services, and deployments.

Use kubectl get with the resource type to see their current status and details.

Add the -n flag to specify a namespace if your resources are not in the default namespace.