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Configure your up CLI context

This guide explains how to navigate and configure contexts using the up ctx command.

The 'up ctx' command​

In up, the up ctx sub-command is a single command to set a kubecontext across all deployments of Upbound. You can use this kubecontext to drive interactions via kubectl. up CLI commands that interact with Upbound's Kubernetes compatible APIs also use the current kubeconfig context.

Interactive terminal UI​

The default experience for up ctx is a terminal UI like kubectx.

important

When interacting with control planes that are hosted in:

  • a Cloud or Connected Space: make sure you're using a cloud profile logged into Upbound with up login before trying to use up ctx.
  • a Disconnected Space: make sure you're using a disconnected profile created using the Space's kubeconfig with either up space init or up profile create.

The following are some tips for using the terminal UI:

  • Use the arrow keys or hotkeys to navigate around the hierarchy within Upbound. Pressing the right arrow button attempts to navigate you into a context. Pressing the left arrow button attempts to navigate you out of the current context into the parent context.
  • Use the Q key to quit and set the context you're in as the current kubecontext.
  • Use the escape key to quit and cancel changing your kubecontext.

Non-interactive navigation​

You can also use up ctx in a non-interactive mode to navigate around the information hierarchy in Upbound. This form of navigation works in similar fashion to navigating a file system from a CLI.

Suppose you start with your context pointed at a Space:

up ctx .
# returns acme/upbound-gcp-us-west1

To traverse to a group, you can use a relative path:

up ctx ./my-group
# returns acme/upbound-gcp-us-west1/my-group

To return to the previous level in the hierarchy, you can use ..:

up ctx ..
# returns acme/upbound-gcp-us-west1

If you're connecting to multiple control planes and want to hop between them, you can do the following:

up ctx acme/upbound-gcp-us-west1/my-group/ctp1
# Set context to ctp1

up ctx acme/upbound-gcp-us-west1/other-group/ctp2
# Set context to ctp2

up ctx -
# Resets context to previous context, ctp1

up ctx -
# Resets context to previous context, ctp2

Storing a context to a file​

Instead of selecting a context and making it your current kubecontext, you can also print the context out to a kubeconfig file. Run the following:

# This saves a control plane's connection details to a kubeconfig
up ctx <your-org>/<your-space>/<your-group>/<your-ctp> -f - > context.yaml

# This saves a Space's connection details to a kubeconfig
up ctx <your-org>/<your-space> -f - > context.yaml

# This saves whatever the current context is to a kubeconfig
up ctx . -f - > context.yaml

If you get lost in the navigation hierarchy, you can print the current context to the screen with the following command:

up ctx .

Proxied configurations​

If your organization requires a proxy like ZScaler, or other SSL network security tools, you might run into certificate validation errors when you attempt to connect to your control plane context.

The --ca-bundle flag lets you add a custom certificate authority bundle to the trust chain.

up ctx --ca-bundle /path/to/custom-ca-bundle.pem YOUR_ORG/YOUR_SPACE_REGION/YOUR_GROUP/YOUR_CONTROL_PLANE -f -

Refer to the up ctx CLI reference for more information.

Generate a kubeconfig​

Because contexts in Upbound are Kubernetes-compatible, there may be cases where you want to generate a kubeconfig from a context:

  • Use the kubeconfig with a CLI like kubectl
  • Provide the kubeconfig to tooling such as Argo

Generate a kubeconfig for a Space​

The steps below generate a kubeconfig so you can interact with Space APIs.

  1. Log on to Upbound.
up login
  1. Set your up context to the desired Space. For example, this command sets it to an Upbound Cloud Space:
up ctx <your-org-name>/upbound-gcp-us-central-1

  1. Save the current context to a kubeconfig in your current working directory called context.yaml:

     up ctx . -f - > context.yaml

Generate a kubeconfig for a Space with a group set​

The steps below generate a kubeconfig with the namespace set to the group so you can interact with Space APIs.

  1. Log on to Upbound.
up login

  1. Set your up context to the desired control plane group in your Upbound resource hierarchy. For example, this command sets it to the default group of an Upbound Cloud Space:

     up ctx <your-org-name>/upbound-gcp-us-central-1/default

  2. Save the current context to a kubeconfig in your current working directory called context.yaml:

     up ctx . -f - > context.yaml

Generate a kubeconfig for a control plane in a group​

The steps below generate a kubeconfig so you can interact with a control plane's API server.

  1. Log on to Upbound.
up login
  1. Set your up context to the desired control plane in your Upbound resource hierarchy. For example, this command sets it to a control plane in the default group of an Upbound Cloud Space:
up ctx <your-org-name>/upbound-gcp-us-central-1/default/my-ctp
  1. Save the current context to a kubeconfig in your current working directory called context.yaml:
up ctx . -f - > context.yaml