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Install and Set Up kubectl

Here are a few methods to install 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; and look at your new cluster and bring up example apps.

• Before you begin
• Install kubectl binary via curl
• Download as part of the Google Cloud SDK
• Install with snap on Ubuntu
• Install with Homebrew on macOS
• Install with Powershell from PSGallery
• Install with Chocolatey on Windows
• Configure kubectl
• Check the kubectl configuration
• Enabling shell autocompletion
  • On Linux, using bash
  • On macOS, using bash
  • Using Zsh
• What’s next

Before you begin

Use a version of kubectl that is the same version as your server or later. Using an older kubectl with a newer server might produce validation errors.

Install kubectl binary via curl

Download as part of the Google Cloud SDK

kubectl can be installed as part of the Google Cloud SDK.

1. Install the Google Cloud SDK.

2. Run the following command to install kubectl:

   gcloud components install kubectl
   

3. Run kubectl version to verify that the version you’ve installed is sufficiently up-to-date.

Install with snap on Ubuntu

kubectl is available as a snap application.

1. If you are on Ubuntu or one of other Linux distributions that support snap package manager, you can install with:

   sudo snap install kubectl --classic
   

2. Run kubectl version to verify that the version you’ve installed is sufficiently up-to-date.

Install with Homebrew on macOS

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

   brew install kubectl
   

2. Run kubectl version to verify that the version you’ve installed is sufficiently up-to-date.

Install with Powershell from PSGallery

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

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

If no Downloadlocation is specified, kubectl will be installed in users temp Directory

1. The installer creates $HOME/.kube and instucts to create a config file
2. Updating re-run Install-Script to update the installer re-run install-kubectl.ps1 to install latest binaries

Install with Chocolatey on Windows

1. If you are on Windows and using Chocolatey package manager, you can install with:

   choco install kubernetes-cli
   

2. Run kubectl version to verify that the version you’ve installed is sufficiently up-to-date.

3. Configure kubectl to use a remote Kubernetes cluster:

   cd C:\users\yourusername (Or wherever your %HOME% directory is)
   mkdir .kube
   cd .kube
   touch config
   

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

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:

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

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

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’ve 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.

source <(kubectl completion zsh)

What’s next

Learn how to launch and expose your application.