Kubernetes

Tool
Description
AWS
Azure
GCP
Example Use Case

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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