Kubectl

Palette generates kubeconfig files that you can download and use to connect to your workload cluster with the kubectl CLI. This guide walks you through downloading a kubeconfig file and verifying access to your cluster.

info

If you are using Palette Virtual Machine Orchestrator (VMO), you can connect to your VMs with the virtctl CLI. virtctl facilitates certain VM operations, including copying, pasting, or transferring files to and from VMs using Secure Copy Protocol (SCP). Refer to our Access VM Cluster with virtctl guide for more information.

Prerequisites

• kubectl installed locally.

  • If your workload cluster has OIDC configured and you download the Kubeconfig File, you must also install kubelogin on the machine where you run kubectl; otherwise, kubectl commands issued against the cluster will fail.

• A workload cluster that is either publicly accessible or a private workload cluster that has the Spectro Proxy pack installed.

• Appropriate Palette permissions for the kubeconfig file you intend to use. Refer to Kubeconfig Permission Requirements for more information.

Access Cluster Using Kubeconfig

1. Log in to Palette.

2. From the left main menu, select Clusters.

3. Select the workload cluster you want to access.

4. From the cluster Overview tab, locate the Kubeconfig File or Admin Kubeconfig File. The available kubeconfig files depend on your Palette permissions and whether OIDC is configured for your workload cluster. Refer to our Kubeconfig guide for more information.

5. Select the appropriate kubeconfig link to download the workload cluster's kubeconfig file.

   

   tip

   To copy the contents of the kubeconfig file to your clipboard instead of downloading the file, select the Copy icon beside the kubeconfig link.

6. Open a terminal session in an environment that has network access to the cluster. Set the KUBECONFIG environment variable to the file path of the downloaded kubeconfig file.

   export KUBECONFIG=<path-to-kubeconfig>

You can now issue kubectl commands against your workload cluster.

Validate

Verify you have access to your workload cluster by issuing kubectl commands against it. For example, use the following command to view all pods in your cluster.

Example command

kubectl get pods --all-namespaces

Example output

NAMESPACE                          NAME                                                               READY   STATUS      RESTARTS      AGE
capi-webhook-system                capa-controller-manager-5bbffdf6bb-sz48f                           1/1     Running     0             8d
capi-webhook-system                capi-controller-manager-7bb56fbdd4-qkstl                           1/1     Running     0             8d
capi-webhook-system                capi-kubeadm-bootstrap-controller-manager-68647cc467-fx9ps         1/1     Running     0             8d
capi-webhook-system                capi-kubeadm-control-plane-controller-manager-7ddbc67456-hm2hc     1/1     Running     0             8d
cert-manager                       cert-manager-5649585bd4-d8xth                                      1/1     Running     0             11d
cert-manager                       cert-manager-cainjector-7b58b7fb85-bj2p4                           1/1     Running     0             11d
cert-manager                       cert-manager-webhook-6d4cc48554-g74rx                              1/1     Running     0             11d
cluster-69ce7de27fc0dde9d7255fd8   capa-controller-manager-cf9fb4598-86zc6                            1/1     Running     0             8d
cluster-69ce7de27fc0dde9d7255fd8   capi-controller-manager-678cd5bf56-fd6jr                           1/1     Running     0             8d
cluster-69ce7de27fc0dde9d7255fd8   capi-kubeadm-bootstrap-controller-manager-7bf69dbdc4-4s57f         1/1     Running     0             8d
cluster-69ce7de27fc0dde9d7255fd8   capi-kubeadm-control-plane-controller-manager-66c6dbd879-bz5gn     1/1     Running     0             8d
cluster-69ce7de27fc0dde9d7255fd8   cluster-management-agent-6c97fc58df-hhgrb                          1/1     Running     0             8d
cluster-69ce7de27fc0dde9d7255fd8   crony-6474bcb49-psws5                                              1/1     Running     0             8d
cluster-69ce7de27fc0dde9d7255fd8   metrics-server-848b66dfd8-cp7s2                                    1/1     Running     0             11d
cluster-69ce7de27fc0dde9d7255fd8   palette-controller-manager-58664d9585-m45sc                        3/3     Running     0             8d
default                            gpu-test                                                           0/1     Completed   0             11d
kube-system                        aws-cloud-controller-manager-wlt8w                                 1/1     Running     0             8d
kube-system                        calico-kube-controllers-f67c6f96-zzrkn                             1/1     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        calico-node-95ltz                                                  1/1     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        calico-node-sqr5h                                                  1/1     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        coredns-674b8bbfcf-2bsw4                                           1/1     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        coredns-674b8bbfcf-tfg7t                                           1/1     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        ebs-csi-controller-55644f45c8-crp4x                                5/5     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        ebs-csi-controller-55644f45c8-dm688                                5/5     Running     3 (11d ago)   11d
kube-system                        ebs-csi-node-c8bnt                                                 3/3     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        ebs-csi-node-mtk2k                                                 3/3     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        etcd-ip-10-0-1-234.us-east-2.compute.internal                      1/1     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        kube-apiserver-ip-10-0-1-234.us-east-2.compute.internal            1/1     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        kube-controller-manager-ip-10-0-1-234.us-east-2.compute.internal   1/1     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        kube-proxy-8hzmj                                                   1/1     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        kube-proxy-zszpp                                                   1/1     Running     0             11d
kube-system                        kube-scheduler-ip-10-0-1-234.us-east-2.compute.internal            1/1     Running     0             11d
palette-system                     palette-webhook-5dc5d9f684-8nk2b                                   1/1     Running     0             8d
palette-system                     palette-webhook-5dc5d9f684-nglbb                                   1/1     Running     0             8d