Kubernetes tooling - tinkering with versions

Having built a new Kubernetes cluster on the IBM Kubernetes Service (IKS), which reports as version 1.11.7_1543 within the IKS dashboard: -

https://cloud.ibm.com/containers-kubernetes/clusters/

I'd noticed that the kubectl tool was out-of-sync with the cluster itself: -

kubectl version

Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"10", GitVersion:"v1.10.11", GitCommit:"637c7e288581ee40ab4ca210618a89a555b6e7e9", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2018-11-26T14:38:32Z", GoVersion:"go1.9.3", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"darwin/amd64"}
Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"11", GitVersion:"v1.11.7+IKS", GitCommit:"498bc5434e4bdc2dafddf57b2e8496f1cbd054bc", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-02-01T08:10:15Z", GoVersion:"go1.10.7", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}

Initially, I assumed (!) that it was covered by the IBM Cloud Plugins: -

Setting up the CLI and API

and checked my plugins: -

ibmcloud plugin list

Listing installed plug-ins...

Plugin Name                            Version   Status   
cloud-functions/wsk/functions/fn       1.0.29       
container-registry                     0.1.368      
container-service/kubernetes-service   0.2.53    Update Available   
dev                                    2.1.15       
sdk-gen                                0.1.12       

This appeared to confirm my suspicion so I updated the IKS plugin: -

ibmcloud plugin update kubernetes-service

Plug-in 'container-service/kubernetes-service 0.2.53' was installed.
Checking upgrades for plug-in 'container-service/kubernetes-service' from repository 'IBM Cloud'...
Update 'container-service/kubernetes-service 0.2.53' to 'container-service/kubernetes-service 0.2.61'
Attempting to download the binary file...
 23.10 MiB / 23.10 MiB [=====================================================================================================================================================] 100.00% 9s
24224568 bytes downloaded
Updating binary...
OK
The plug-in was successfully upgraded.

ibmcloud plugin list

Listing installed plug-ins...

Plugin Name                            Version   Status   
sdk-gen                                0.1.12       
cloud-functions/wsk/functions/fn       1.0.29       
container-registry                     0.1.368      
container-service/kubernetes-service   0.2.61       
dev                                    2.1.15       

BUT kubectl continued to show as back-level: -

kubectl version

Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"10", GitVersion:"v1.10.11", GitCommit:"637c7e288581ee40ab4ca210618a89a555b6e7e9", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2018-11-26T14:38:32Z", GoVersion:"go1.9.3", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"darwin/amd64"}

Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"11", GitVersion:"v1.11.7+IKS", GitCommit:"498bc5434e4bdc2dafddf57b2e8496f1cbd054bc", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-02-01T08:10:15Z", GoVersion:"go1.10.7", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}

Therefore, I chose to reinstall kubectl etc. as per this: -

Install and Set Up kubectl

( specifically using Homebrew, as I'm running on macOS )

brew install kubernetes-cli

Updating Homebrew...

==> Auto-updated Homebrew!

Updated 1 tap (homebrew/core).

==> New Formulae

cafeobj                                       homeassistant-cli                             re-flex                                       riff

==> Updated Formulae

go ✔                cfengine            closure-compiler    couchdb             dartsim             dhex                fx                  node-build          pulumi

apache-arrow        cflow               cmark-gfm           cpprestsdk          davix               dialog              git-lfs             numpy               shadowsocks-libev

axel                cfr-decompiler      cointop             cproto              dcd                 diffoscope          godep               openssl@1.1         ship

azure-cli           chakra              collector-sidecar   crc32c              ddrescue            diffstat            grafana             pandoc-citeproc     siege

bzt                 check_postgres      conan               cryptominisat       deark               digdag              kube-ps1            passenger

calicoctl           checkstyle          configen            cscope              debianutils         elektra             kustomize           pgweb

cdk                 chkrootkit          consul-template     czmq                deja-gnu            fabio               libtensorflow       pre-commit

cdogs-sdl           cli53               coturn              darcs               deployer            flake8              nginx               protoc-gen-go

==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/kubernetes-cli-1.13.3.mojave.bottle.tar.gz

######################################################################## 100.0%

==> Pouring kubernetes-cli-1.13.3.mojave.bottle.tar.gz

Error: The `brew link` step did not complete successfully

The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local

Could not symlink bin/kubectl

Target /usr/local/bin/kubectl

already exists. You may want to remove it:

  rm '/usr/local/bin/kubectl'

To force the link and overwrite all conflicting files:

  brew link --overwrite kubernetes-cli

To list all files that would be deleted:

  brew link --overwrite --dry-run kubernetes-cli

Possible conflicting files are:

/usr/local/bin/kubectl -> /Applications/Docker.app/Contents/Resources/bin/kubectl

==> Caveats

Bash completion has been installed to:

  /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d

zsh completions have been installed to:

  /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions

==> Summary

🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/kubernetes-cli/1.13.3: 207 files, 43.7MB

Notice that it did NOT replace kubectl as it was already there :-)

So I chose to remove the existing kubectl : -

rm `which kubectl`

and then re-link: -

brew link kubernetes-cli

I then checked the version: -

kubectl version

Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"13", GitVersion:"v1.13.3", GitCommit:"721bfa751924da8d1680787490c54b9179b1fed0", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-02-04T04:48:03Z", GoVersion:"go1.11.5", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"darwin/amd64"}

Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"11", GitVersion:"v1.11.7+IKS", GitCommit:"498bc5434e4bdc2dafddf57b2e8496f1cbd054bc", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-02-01T08:10:15Z", GoVersion:"go1.10.7", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}

so now kubectl is at a later version than the cluster ....

Let's see how it goes ....

*UPDATE*

I then read this: -

If you use a kubectl CLI version that does not match at least the major.minor version of your clusters, you might experience unexpected results. Make sure to keep your Kubernetes cluster and CLI versions up-to-date.

here: -

Setting up the CLI and API

and realised that the page actually includes a download link for the right major/minor version ( 11.7 ) kubectl for macOS.

I downloaded this and replaced the existing version: -

mv ~/Downloads/kubectl  /usr/local/bin/

and then validated the versions: -

kubectl version

Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"11", GitVersion:"v1.11.7", GitCommit:"65ecaf0671341311ce6aea0edab46ee69f65d59e", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-01-24T19:32:00Z", GoVersion:"go1.10.7", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"darwin/amd64"}
Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"11", GitVersion:"v1.11.7+IKS", GitCommit:"498bc5434e4bdc2dafddf57b2e8496f1cbd054bc", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2019-02-01T08:10:15Z", GoVersion:"go1.10.7", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}

which now match ( major/minor ).

Nice !