Getting a View of Pods Across Multiple Kubernetes Clusters

Sounds like you’ve already started on the right path by thinking about kubectl. But yeah, switching contexts constantly can be a real pain, especially if you’re looking to keep tabs on multiple clusters in a more streamlined way.

One solution that’s worked for some folks is writing a simple script that uses the kubectl command for each cluster you have. You can list your clusters in a configuration file or an array, and then loop through that list to grab the pod details. For example:

        #!/bin/bash
        clusters=("cluster1" "cluster2" "cluster3")
        
        for cluster in "${clusters[@]}"; do
            echo "Pods in $cluster:"
            kubectl --context="$cluster" get pods -o=custom-columns='NAME:.metadata.name,VERSION:.spec.containers[*].image'
            echo
        done
    

This script lets you run kubectl commands without manually changing contexts every time. Just add or remove cluster names from the array as needed.

For a more visual approach, tools like K9s can help because they let you interact with your clusters in a terminal UI, though you’d still be switching contexts. And if you want something a bit more robust, you might want to check out solutions like Prometheus along with Grafana. You can set up metrics collection to monitor all your clusters and visualize them in a single dashboard.

Also, consider looking into kubectl-who-can, which is great for additional insights, and there’s also kgan, which provides a nice overview of resources across clusters.

Lastly, keep in mind that managing context is just one piece. Make sure your kubeconfig is set up correctly so you can easily access all your clusters, and think about how you’d want to handle permissions as you scale up. It’s definitely a bit of work upfront, but it’ll pay off in the long run for ease of monitoring.

Hope this helps get you started!