K9s: A lazier way to manage Kubernetes Clusters | Hacker News Reader

K9s: A lazier way to manage Kubernetes Clusters

github.com

117 pointsemersonrsantos19 comments

I love k9s and use it for most everything... but the unintended result is that I've lost my fluency in kubectl, which is occasionally a hinderance.

But maybe that's what you want from a tool - something so good it essentially replaces the previous way you were doing something?

I use OpenLens and this is exactly my sentiment. For someone who isn't fluent with kubectl, these tools are a wonderful way to approach the matter, but if you have learnt kubectl first, which is my case, then this brings you to "unlearn" it

Same here. I started with k8slens, but moved to k9s when k8slens started requiring the login. I didn't know about Openlens, which seems to be a fork of the open source portion of k8slens. But I've gotten pretty good at k9s now, so I'll probably stick with it.

In either case, both tools have made me less proficient with kubectl. Now I mostly use kubectl to apply yaml manifests. Editing a manifest in k9s is not as straightforward as I would like, and it's nicer to have a local copy of the file.

On the contrary, I don't see this tool as lazy at all. I find it indispensable, I always have it running in a Tmux pane. No Kubernetes admin should be without, it's a real gem.

Shout out to Fernand and the other contributors for all the work they've put into it, thanks!

I'm a huge fan of k9s and we use it quite a bit at Argonaut.

I'm unaffiliated with the tool except as a user and a tiny sponsor, and I'd encourage users who are willing and able to sponsor this amazing tool as well.

Huge fan of K9s.

I take umbrage to "lazier" though. Especially since k9s' themselves considers themselves "a kubernetes CLI To manage your clusters in style". Sort of derogatory editorializing.

It's lazy in that it's not exactly easy to use; it could have menus that are selectable by arrows or mouse

Been using k9s for years, big fan!

I only use kubectl because kubectl is enough. Change my mind!

(k9s is well built though.)

k9s really speeds up outages resolution, especially with larger infra.

They are quite different tools. k9s gives you an interactive environment that allows for discoverability and real-time inspection. It's not just for running commands, it's for visually navigating the entire state of the cluster. Personally I find it an invaluable learning tool; I can dig into all corners of the cluster with a few keystrokes and get instant feedback without memorizing the equivalent hundereds of kubectl commands.

As a really fast general typist (doubly so for CLI) and with all the fancy `fish` autocomplete plugins for kubectl installed, it's still annoying to type out/complete names of various resources / labels / whatever you need for kubectl.

And yeah I have `kubectl` abbreviated as `kc` in `fish`.

I met Fernand at the first ElixirConf. Lovely dude, had a lot of fun hanging out. Chatted a few times since then, always a treat. I use his software 100 days a year

Being using that and lens. Then lens broke and only k9s.

It’s fine!

K9 is amazing. Kudos for all developers.

To be honest I do not miss a single bit of `kubectl` skills.

k9s and kubectx are lifesavers at my job

add kubens to that list! Changing the namespace quickly for the current context also saves fingers.

I'll add stern (https://github.com/stern/stern) to that - follow logs from multiple pods easily.

K9s is amazing.

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