Kubernetes uses a command line utility called kubectl for communicating with the cluster API server. It is a tool for controlling Kubernetes clusters. kubectl looks for a file named config in the $HOME directory.

How to install Kubectl in Ubuntu instance

1. Update the apt package index and install packages needed to use the Kubernetes apt repository:

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install -y ca-certificates curl
   

   If you use Debian 9 (stretch) or earlier you would also need to install apt-transport-https:

    sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https
   

2. Download the Google Cloud public signing key:

    curl -fsSL https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-archive-keyring.gpg
   

3. Add the Kubernetes apt repository:

    echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.kubernetes.io/ kubernetes-xenial main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
   

4. Update apt package index with the new repository and install kubectl:

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install -y kubectl
   

5. Verify if kubectl got installed

    kubectl version --short --client