Kubernetes
kubectl
Kubernetes CLI for cluster management
✅
✅
✅
Deploy apps, manage resources, debug pods
Helm
Kubernetes package manager (charts)
✅
✅
✅
Install Prometheus, NGINX Ingress, ArgoCD
Kustomize
Template-free YAML customization
✅
✅
✅
Overlay configs for dev/prod environments
K9s
Terminal UI for managing clusters
✅
✅
✅
Real-time pod monitoring and troubleshooting
Lens
Kubernetes IDE (GUI)
✅
✅
✅
Visualize workloads, manage clusters
ArgoCD
GitOps continuous delivery controller
✅
✅
✅
Automated app deployment from Git
FluxCD
GitOps continuous delivery tool
✅
✅
✅
Declarative cluster state management
Prometheus
Monitoring and alerting toolkit
✅
✅
✅
Collect cluster and app metrics
Grafana
Visualization and dashboarding
✅
✅
✅
Create dashboards for Prometheus metrics
Velero
Backup and restore for Kubernetes
✅
✅
✅
Scheduled cluster backups to S3, Blob, GCS
Istio
Service mesh for traffic management
✅
✅
✅
Secure, monitor, and control microservices
Linkerd
Lightweight service mesh
✅
✅
✅
Zero-trust networking for services
cert-manager
Automated certificate management
✅
✅
✅
Issue TLS certs from Let's Encrypt
kube-bench
CIS Kubernetes security checks
✅
✅
✅
Audit cluster security posture
kube-hunter
Kubernetes penetration testing
✅
✅
✅
Find cluster vulnerabilities
kubeseal
Encrypted secrets management (SealedSecrets)
✅
✅
✅
Store secrets safely in Git
krew
Plugin manager for kubectl
✅
✅
✅
Install kubectl plugins (e.g., ctx, ns)
Skaffold
CI/CD for local Kubernetes development
✅
✅
✅
Rapid local dev and deployment
Telepresence
Local development with remote clusters
✅
✅
✅
Debug services in real clusters from local machine
Trivy
Container and K8s security scanner
✅
✅
✅
Scan images and manifests for vulnerabilities
Legend:
✅ = Supported/commonly used
Real-Life Example: Helm on Azure AKS
# Add Bitnami repo and install Prometheus on AKS
helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami
helm install prometheus bitnami/kube-prometheus --namespace monitoring --create-namespace
Real-Life Example: Velero Backup to AWS S3
velero install \
--provider aws \
--bucket my-k8s-backups \
--secret-file ./aws-credentials \
--backup-location-config region=us-west-2
Real-Life Example: ArgoCD GitOps on GKE
kubectl create namespace argocd
kubectl apply -n argocd -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/argoproj/argo-cd/stable/manifests/install.yaml
# Connect ArgoCD to a Git repo for automated app deployment
For more, see the Kubernetes official tools list and each tool's documentation.
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