The IT landscape is one that evolves rapidly and, when providing a service, one that is very dynamic in meeting demand. Since Google open sourced the Kubernetes project in 2014, it has gained a lot of popularity as a solution that manages containerized workloads/services, allowing for scalable configuration and automation. Kubernetes does a great job tying together both the Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) aspects of operating. That ultimately allows you to provide a very dynamic, portable service.

When running containers, it is possible to lose some insight into what is actually going on inside. That is where Kubespy comes into play. A light open source, command-line tool from a company called Pulumi, it can be run as a standalone from its own shell or integrated with kubectl. Kubespy allows for three powerful commands, which provide a wealth of information about what is going on inside the pod/cluster.

• kubespy statusMonitors changes made to the .status field, displaying changes as a syntax-highlighted JSON diff.
• kubespy changesMonitors changes made to whichever field you define, displaying any changes as a syntax-highlighted JSON diff.
• kubespy traceProvides a real-time, high-level summary of changes, spawned from more complex cluster level Kubernetes commands, such as deployments.

Pulumi has several more commands planned for future development. I expect to see more great tools from Pulumi, and other similar developers, as the already large Kubernetes ecosystem continues to expand and adapt to the needs of the user.

A common misconception when working with open source software is believing they lack features, updates and support. While this may hold true for lesser-known smaller projects or those that are end-of-life, the same can be said for commercial projects, as well. It’s something to consider when choosing your next platform. The money you can save may just be worth it.