IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service - where's my KUBECONFIG ?

As much as anything, this is a reminder of where the KUBECONFIG ( Kubernetes configuration ) gets persisted, by default, when I retrieve the cluster config using the IBM Cloud CLI tool.

So, I have a cluster called davehay-cluster-24112022 in my account, which I spun up last week, targeting version 1.25.4_1522. This cluster has a unique ID of cdvpi5320u9g36cvpjrg.

I can retrieve this cluster configuration using a command such as: -

ibmcloud cs cluster config --cluster davehay-cluster-24112022

or, even: -

ibmcloud cs cluster config --cluster cdvpi5320u9g36cvpjrg --admin --network

( if I want to (a) admin the cluster and (b) get the Calico network configuration )

When I run this command, I get a helpful output reminding me where things get stored: -

OK
The configuration for cdvpi5320u9g36cvpjrg was downloaded successfully.
Network Config:
/Users/hayd/.bluemix/plugins/container-service/clusters/davehay-cluster-24112022-cdvpi5320u9g36cvpjrg-admin/calicoctl.cfg

Added context for cdvpi5320u9g36cvpjrg to the current kubeconfig file.
You can now execute 'kubectl' commands against your cluster. For example, run 'kubectl get nodes'.
If you are accessing the cluster for the first time, 'kubectl' commands might fail for a few seconds while RBAC synchronizes.

Most notably, this is the important bit: -

/Users/hayd/.bluemix/plugins/container-service/clusters/davehay-cluster-24112022-cdvpi5320u9g36cvpjrg-admin

If I inspect that subdirectory: -

ls -al

I see a bunch of files: -

total 64
drwxr-x---  10 hayd  staff   320 28 Nov 14:41 .
drwxr-x---   3 hayd  staff    96 28 Nov 14:41 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 hayd  staff  1679 28 Nov 14:41 admin-key.pem
-rw-r--r--   1 hayd  staff  1350 28 Nov 14:41 admin.pem
-rw-r--r--   1 hayd  staff  1188 28 Nov 14:41 ca-aaa00-davehay-cluster-24112022.pem
-rw-r--r--   1 hayd  staff  1188 28 Nov 14:41 ca.pem
-rw-r--r--   1 hayd  staff   230 28 Nov 14:41 calicoctl.cfg
-rw-r--r--   1 hayd  staff   135 28 Nov 14:41 calicoctl.cfg.template
-rw-r--r--   1 hayd  staff   628 28 Nov 14:41 kube-config-aaa00-davehay-cluster-24112022.yml
-rw-r--r--   1 hayd  staff   628 28 Nov 14:41 kube-config.yaml

including kube-config.yaml.

I can then setup my kubectl environment: -

export KUBECONFIG=/Users/hayd/.bluemix/plugins/container-service/clusters/davehay-cluster-24112022-cdvpi5320u9g36cvpjrg-admin/kube-config.yaml

and then run kubectl commands such as: -

kubectl get nodes -A

NAME         STATUS   ROLES    AGE     VERSION
10.240.0.5   Ready    <none>   3d22h   v1.25.4+IKS

As an alternate, I could do this: -

ibmcloud cs cluster config --cluster cdvpi5320u9g36cvpjrg --admin --output YAML > ~/k8s.yaml

export KUBECONFIG=~/k8s.yaml

which is a nice alternative.