Ifyou have managed multiple Kubernetes clusters, you are likely to be familiar with tools like kubectx and kubens, OR you are most comfortable using kubectl config set-context.
This approach might be easy to work with a couple of clusters. However, this context-switching will be cumbersome if you deal with dozens of clusters.
To ease this complexity, you might have a GUI client that quickly switches between multiple clusters, but nothing beats the speed and efficiency of using CLI.
This is where Kubie steps in, an open-source tool designed to ease the complexity and supercharge your CLI experience for Kubernetes context management.
Table of Contents
Introducing Kubie
Kubie removes the context-switching friction and provides a user-friendly CLI experience to manage contexts and namespaces.
Here’s how Kubie stands out:
- Independent Shell Sessions: With Kubie, each shell session is independent. This means changes in one session (like switching contexts or namespaces) don’t affect others. This isolation is invaluable when working on multiple projects or clusters simultaneously.
- Support for Split Configuration Files: Kubie’s ability to load contexts from multiple configuration files is handy for managing complex environments. This feature allows for better organization and segmentation of access credentials and configurations, reducing the risk of misconfiguration.
- Enhanced Usability: Beyond its core features, Kubie improves daily Kubernetes operations by streamlining context switches and providing a more intuitive interface for managing namespaces. This usability translates to faster management tasks.
How Kubie and Kubectx Compare?
Getting Started with Kubie
Kubie is easy to download and install. You can download your OS-specific binary from the release page OR use a package manager to install it.
Once installed, you can get started with kubie ctx.
Review the available options to familiarize yourself with the tool.
Even though the default configuration is good to go from the start, you can customize Kubie’s settings in the config file at ~/.kube/kubie.yaml.
Conclusion
Here are three reasons I use Kubie in my day-to-day K8S management tasks.
- It has independent shell sessions. Unlike
kubectxORkubectl, when I switch contexts with Kubie, they are only within that shell session. I can open a new terminal tab and have another working context. This feature alone is super-useful. - The ability to configure multiple
kube-configfiles is a breeze when I am working with different clients and their K8S clusters. I can have appropriately namedkube-configfiles and add/remove them from Kubie’s config. - It’s written in Rust, so it’s damm-fast.
So I recommend you try Kubie, and I hope you will appreciate its features as much as I do!
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