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kubectl describe

Learn resource details with kubectl describe.

kubectl describe

kubectl describe shows a human-readable detailed summary of an object and, at the bottom, the related events. The answers to why a pod doesn't start or keeps restarting are usually in the events:

$ kubectl describe pod web-7c5b9f6d8-abcde
Name:         web-7c5b9f6d8-abcde
Node:         worker-1/192.168.49.3
Status:       Running
Containers:
  nginx:
    Image:    nginx:1.27
    State:    Running
Events:
  Normal  Scheduled  10s  default-scheduler  Successfully assigned default/web-… to worker-1
  Normal  Pulled     8s   kubelet            Container image "nginx:1.27" already present

kubectl explain

When writing YAML, if you forget what a field means, kubectl explain fetches the documentation from the cluster's own definitions:

$ kubectl explain deployment.spec.replicas
KIND:     Deployment
FIELD:    replicas <integer>
DESCRIPTION:
    Number of desired pods. Defaults to 1.
$ kubectl explain pod.spec.containers --recursive | head

Practice Inspect and learn

Write three commands: show the web deployment in detail; show the documentation of the pod.spec.containers.image field; get the full definition of the web deployment as YAML.

Starter code

terminal
# buraya yaz

Sample solution

terminal
kubectl describe deployment web
kubectl explain pod.spec.containers.image
kubectl get deployment web -o yaml

Expected output

Name:                   web
Replicas:               2 desired | 2 updated | 2 total | 2 available
FIELD:    image <string>
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: web

Questions and answers

Review the lesson questions together with their answers. To test yourself, solve the lesson interactively.

1 What is the difference between get -o yaml and describe?

  • describe gives a readable summary and events; -o yaml is the raw object Correct answer
  • They are the same
  • describe changes the object
  • -o yaml shows the events too

Explanation: Events are separate objects; describe links and shows them.

2 Show a field's documentation.

Question 
kubectl ____ deployment.spec.replicas
Answer 
kubectl explain deployment.spec.replicas

Explanation: explain gives the field type and description.

3 Match.

Term Meaning
describe Readable summary and events
get -o yaml Raw object
explain Field documentation
Events What happened

All lessons in Intermediate

1 What is Kubernetes?

  1. What is Kubernetes?
  2. Why Kubernetes?
  3. Cluster architecture
  4. Control plane
  5. Worker node
  6. Summary - What is Kubernetes

2 Minikube

  1. What is Minikube?
  2. Installing Minikube
  3. minikube start
  4. minikube status
  5. minikube dashboard
  6. Summary - Minikube

3 kubectl basics

  1. What is kubectl?
  2. kubectl get
  3. kubectl describe
  4. kubectl apply
  5. kubectl delete
  6. Summary - kubectl

4 Pod

  1. What is a Pod?
  2. Pod YAML
  3. Creating a Pod
  4. Pod status
  5. Multi-container Pod
  6. Summary - Pod

5 Deployment

  1. What is a Deployment?
  2. Deployment YAML
  3. Replica count
  4. Rolling update
  5. Rollback
  6. Summary - Deployment

6 ReplicaSet

  1. What is a ReplicaSet?
  2. ReplicaSet YAML
  3. ReplicaSet selector
  4. Scaling
  5. Self-healing
  6. Summary - ReplicaSet

7 Service

  1. What is a Service?
  2. ClusterIP
  3. NodePort
  4. LoadBalancer
  5. Service selector
  6. Summary - Service

8 ConfigMap

  1. What is a ConfigMap?
  2. ConfigMap YAML
  3. Environment variable
  4. Mounting as a volume
  5. kubectl create configmap
  6. Summary - ConfigMap

9 Secret

  1. What is a Secret?
  2. Secret types
  3. Secret YAML
  4. Mounting a Secret
  5. kubectl create secret
  6. Summary - Secret

10 Namespace

  1. What is a Namespace?
  2. kubectl get namespaces
  3. Creating a Namespace
  4. The -n flag
  5. Default Namespace
  6. Summary - Namespace

11 Labels and selectors

  1. What is a label?
  2. Adding labels
  3. Label selector
  4. kubectl get -l
  5. Equality and set selectors
  6. Summary - Labels

12 Project: Multi-tier app

  1. Project design
  2. Database Deployment
  3. Web Deployment
  4. ConfigMap and Secret
  5. Putting it together - multi-tier

13 Troubleshooting

  1. kubectl logs
  2. kubectl exec
  3. kubectl describe pod
  4. CrashLoopBackOff
  5. Pending Pod
  6. Summary - Troubleshooting

14 Intermediate final

  1. Challenge - Pod YAML
  2. Challenge - Deployment
  3. Challenge - Service
  4. Challenge - ConfigMap
  5. Challenge - Intermediate project