| Tool | Purpose | Interaction | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| kubeadm | Cluster setup and administration. Used for bootstrapping a minimum viable Kubernetes cluster and managing its lifecycle, such as upgrades and joining nodes. | Communicates with the kubelet and Kubernetes API server during the cluster initialization process. | Used for cluster-wide setup tasks, such as creating the control plane and configuring nodes. |
| kubectl | Cluster management and interaction. The primary tool for day-to-day operations, allowing users to run commands against a Kubernetes cluster to deploy and manage applications. | Communicates with the Kubernetes API server, which then orchestrates changes across the cluster. | Affects all resources within the cluster, including pods, services, and deployments. |
| crictl | Node-level runtime debugging. A low-level tool for interacting directly with the Container Runtime Interface (CRI) on a specific node. | Communicates directly with the container runtime (e.g., containerd or CRI-O) to inspect pods, containers, and images. | Its scope is limited to a single worker node for debugging containers and images when kubectl or the API server is unavailable. |
| etcdctl | etcd data store management. A command-line client for interacting with the etcd database, which stores the cluster’s configuration and state. | Communicates directly with the etcd database to set, get, and manage key-value data. | Operates on the etcd database, which holds the canonical “source of truth” for the entire cluster’s state. |
Other Tools
Kubernetes contains several tools to help you work with the Kubernetes system.
crictl
crictl is a command-line interface for inspecting and debugging CRI-compatible container runtimes.
Dashboard
Dashboard, the web-based user interface of Kubernetes, allows you to deploy containerized applications to a Kubernetes cluster, troubleshoot them, and manage the cluster and its resources itself.
Helm
🛇 This item links to a third party project or product that is not part of Kubernetes itself. More information
Helm is a tool for managing packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources. These packages are known as Helm charts.
Use Helm to:
- Find and use popular software packaged as Kubernetes charts
- Share your own applications as Kubernetes charts
- Create reproducible builds of your Kubernetes applications
- Intelligently manage your Kubernetes manifest files
- Manage releases of Helm packages
Kompose
Kompose is a tool to help Docker Compose users move to Kubernetes.
Use Kompose to:
- Translate a Docker Compose file into Kubernetes objects
- Go from local Docker development to managing your application via Kubernetes
- Convert v1 or v2 Docker Compose
yamlfiles or Distributed Application Bundles
Kui
Kui is a GUI tool that takes your normal kubectl command line requests and responds with graphics.
Kui takes the normal kubectl command line requests and responds with graphics. Instead of ASCII tables, Kui provides a GUI rendering with tables that you can sort.
Kui lets you:
- Directly click on long, auto-generated resource names instead of copying and pasting
- Type in
kubectlcommands and see them execute, even sometimes faster thankubectlitself - Query a Job and see its execution rendered as a waterfall diagram
- Click through resources in your cluster using a tabbed UI
Minikube
minikube is a tool that runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster locally on your workstation for development and testing purposes.
Items on this page refer to third party products or projects that provide functionality required by Kubernetes. The Kubernetes project authors aren’t responsible for those third-party products or projects. See the CNCF website guidelines for more details.
You should read the content guide before proposing a change that adds an extra third-party link.