k4s

A CLI tool for managing installations and Kubernetes operations.

It helps install and operate:

• VM-based products over SSH (systemd services, OS packages, file layout)
• Kubernetes-based products via Helm (with safer targeting via k8s contexts)

Installation

Recommended (isolated install):

pipx install k4s

Alternative:

pip install --upgrade k4s

Quick start

Initialize local state:

k4s init

Add a VM context (SSH target) and set it as current:

k4s context add prod-vm --type vm --host 10.0.0.10 --username root --password '...'
k4s context use-context prod-vm
k4s context ping

Add a K8s context and set it as current:

k4s context add demo-k8s --type k8s --kubeconfig ~/.kube/config --kubectl-context gke_demo --namespace sep
k4s context use-context demo-k8s
k4s context ping

Core concepts

Contexts (targets)

k4s always operates against a context:

• VM contexts: SSH connection info (host, username, auth)
• K8s contexts: kubeconfig + kubectl context + (optional) default namespace

If --context is omitted, k4s uses the current context (set via k4s context use-context).

Verbosity

• -q/--quiet: only final results and errors (also suppresses update notices)
• default: concise step output
• -v: show step logs
• -vv: debug output

Dry run

Most commands support --dry-run to print the plan without applying changes.

Products and commands

VM products (SSH)

• Docker Engine: k4s install docker
• Nexus: k4s install nexus
• Dataiku: k4s install dataiku
• R integration (for an existing Dataiku install): k4s install r

Health checks (works even if the product was not installed by k4s):

k4s status nexus
k4s status dataiku --context prod-vm

TLS:

k4s tls enable nexus --issuer self-signed --domain nexus.example.com
k4s tls enable dataiku --issuer acme --domain dss.example.com --email admin@example.com

Kubernetes products (Helm)

• ingress-nginx: k4s install ingress-nginx
• Starburst Enterprise: k4s install starburst
• Starburst components: k4s install hive|ranger|cache
• Datafloem: k4s install datafloem

Upgrades:

k4s upgrade starburst --force
k4s upgrade datafloem

Example Helm values files:

• See examples/helm-values/

Kubernetes clusters (RKE2)

Create an RKE2 cluster using VM node contexts:

k4s cluster preflight --control-plane cp1 --worker w1
k4s cluster create --name lab --type rke2 --control-plane cp1 --worker w1 --cni canal
k4s cluster kubeconfig --name lab --control-plane cp1

Updates

When installed from PyPI, k4s checks once per day for a newer version and prints a notice:

Update available: 0.0.1a1 → 0.0.2  (run: pip install --upgrade k4s)

Development

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -e .
pytest