In this article, we will see the top kubectl plugins that are useful.
1.Kubectx
Kubectx / Kubens is probably the most important plugin and the first one to install. Moving from a context to another one, from a namespace to another one are probably the most used commands. This plugin makes it easier to switch between context and namespace with Kubectl.
2. Kail
Kail is THE plugin required to troubleshoot any issues on a Kubernetes cluster. It can tail the logs of multiple pods based on the service name, the replica set, the deployment, etc… Be more productive by tailing all the logs in one terminal window to quickly identify potential issues.
3.ksniff
Ksniff, everything is in the name, this plugin utilizes Tcpdump and Wireshark to start a remote capture on any pod in a Kubernetes cluster. Definitely a plugin required to troubleshoot any Container Network Interface (CNI) issue.
4.Kubectl tree
Kubectl tree explores ownership relationships between Kubernetes objects to optimize the display of information, making it more human-readable. This plugin reduces the number of commands required to identify the parent / child relationship of Kubernetes resources.
5.kubepug
Kubepug is the perfect pre-upgrade Kubernetes cluster checker. This command line downloads the information of the newer Kubernetes version and compares it to the current workload to identify updates required by the potential new deprecations. Definitely something that needs to be run before an upgrade.
6.kubectl-cost
Kubectl-cost is a command line way to get access to the Kubernetes cost allocation metrics via the Kubecost APIs. It obviously requires the deployment of Kubecost inside the Kubernetes cluster to get access to the information. It is especially interesting in production to profile the resource consumption of each live workload.
7.Starboard
Starboard is another Aqua security project that aims to unify the security in a Kubernetes environment. This toolkit integrates security tools to identify and report the risks that relate to different resources in a Kubernetes-native way. It is a perfect tool to add to CI/CD pipelines to run vulnerability scanners, workload auditors, and configuration benchmark.
8.kubectl-debug
Kubectl-debug is a fantastic project to easily troubleshoot any running pod. This plugin creates a new container inside the pod with all the tools required to debug a potential issue without requiring pre-installation or update of the running pod.
9.popeye
Popeye is a good Kubernetes cluster sanitizer. It scans live resources and reports potential resource issues and misconfigurations. Combined with metric-server, it can also recommend resource allocations to optimize the workload. This utility is nice to have to ensure that the best practices of a Kubernetes cluster management are applied.
10.kube-score
Kube-score aims to improve the security and the reliability of the Kubernetes workload by performing static code analysis of Kubernetes objects definition. Perfect for a CI/CD pipeline before applying the resources.