How to Manage a Kubernetes Cluster

How-to · Updated May 2026

Coming from another cloud?

▸AWS·Amazon EKS Cluster

Amazon EKS Clusterhigh

EKS control plane fully AWS-managed, single-tenant, across 3 AZs with auto scale/replace; on Quake AI you run the control plane on Nova instances, provisioned through Magnum or self-managed with OpenTofu, and you operate it.
EKS regional API endpoint with SLA; Quake AI exposes the kube API via Neutron LB with floating IP.
EKS charges a per-hour cluster platform fee on top of the underlying compute; Quake AI charges only for underlying Nova/Neutron/Cinder resources with no K8s platform fee.
EKS managed nodes auto AMI updates, Spot integration; Quake AI self-managed nodes require manual OS image selection and update management.

AWS docs ↗

▸Azure·AKS Cluster

AKS Clusterhigh

Azure automatically provisions and manages the control plane at no additional cost (Free tier) or fixed fee (Standard tier with SLA), offloading health monitoring and upgrades; on Quake AI you provision a cluster through Magnum (openstack coe cluster create) or self-managed Kubernetes on Nova instances (OpenTofu plus kubeadm, k3s, or RKE2), and you operate the cluster after creation.
No OpenStack integration; uses Azure Resource Manager for cluster lifecycle.
Pre-configured with Azure-specific defaults and add-ons like application routing.
Managed via Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) with auto-scaling and upgrades; Quake AI uses Nova instances provisioned via OpenTofu with user-managed scaling and upgrades.

Azure docs ↗

▸DigitalOcean·Doks

This Quake AI feature maps to DigitalOcean’s Doks.

▸Google Cloud·GKE Cluster

GKE Clusterhigh

GKE provides Autopilot mode with fully managed node provisioning and scaling by Google; on Quake AI you provision clusters through Magnum or self-managed Kubernetes on Nova instances and manage node scaling yourself.
Control plane is fully managed with automatic upgrades through release channels; Quake AI requires user-provisioned and user-managed control plane nodes.
Cluster creation uses gcloud CLI vs OpenStack CLI (openstack coe cluster create).
Custom machine types, spot VMs, accelerators in node pools; Quake AI K8s nodes use standard Nova flavors.

Google Cloud docs ↗

▸Hetzner·Kubernetes

This Quake AI feature maps to Hetzner’s Kubernetes.

How to manage a Kubernetes cluster

Scale worker nodes, view cluster status, retrieve the kubeconfig for kubectl access, and delete clusters when no longer needed. The Clusters list page exposes a filter input on the far right of the toolbar with placeholder text Multiple filter tags are separated by enter; use it to locate a specific cluster by name.

Prerequisites

ConsoleLogged in to the Quake AI console
CLIOpenStack CLI installed and authenticated (clouds.yaml or openrc sourced)

Windows: CLI examples use bash. Set up a Linux CLI environment on Windows before proceeding.

An existing Kubernetes cluster in CREATE_COMPLETE or UPDATE_COMPLETE status
For CLI management: the python-magnumclient package installed (pip install python-magnumclient)

View cluster status#

Select Kubernetes > Clusters from the top-level navigation.
The list shows five columns in this order: ID/Name, Status, Health Status, Keypair, Action. An unlabelled checkbox column on the left selects rows for the toolbar's bulk Delete action. Node counts and timestamps live on the cluster detail page rather than the list. Per-row actions live behind the Settings gear icon in the Action column. The dropdown's contents depend on cluster state: while the cluster is in CREATE_IN_PROGRESS, only Get kube.config is shown; once the cluster reaches CREATE_COMPLETE or CREATE_FAILED, the full dropdown lists three items in order: Delete, Resize Cluster, Get kube.config.

The toolbar above the list renders six controls in this order:

Control	Behavior
sync (icon-only)	Refreshes the list.
Create Cluster	Opens the Create Cluster wizard.
Delete (text button)	Bulk-deletes the rows selected via the checkbox column. Disabled when zero rows are selected. Distinct from the per-row gear-menu Delete.
eye (icon-only)	Show or hide columns and the row-details preview.
download (icon-only)	Exports the list (CSV or JSON).
pause-circle (icon-only)	Icon-only control; behavior is not documented upstream.

Select a cluster name to open its detail page. The detail page surfaces the API address, the cluster template, Number of Master Nodes and Number of Nodes (separate fields, not a combined node count), labels, fault information, and the Created At and Updated At timestamps.

Access the cluster with kubectl#

The Console exposes the kubeconfig file as a per-row action on the Clusters list:

Select Kubernetes > Clusters.
Find the cluster you want kubectl access to. On its row, open the Settings gear icon dropdown and select Get kube.config (verbatim label, including the dot and the lowercase c). Selecting the item triggers an immediate browser download; there is no intermediate dialog. The downloaded file is plain-text YAML.
Move the downloaded file to a known location and export it as KUBECONFIG:

bash

export KUBECONFIG=/path/to/downloaded/kube.config

Verify connectivity:

bash

kubectl get nodes

All master and worker nodes should show Ready status.

Scale worker nodes#

Select Kubernetes > Clusters.
Find the cluster you want to scale. On its row, open the Settings gear icon dropdown and select Resize Cluster.
The Resize Cluster dialog opens with two read-only fields (Current Master Node and Current Node Count), an editable Changed Node Count input pre-filled with 2, and an Instance Quota gauge on the right side. Enter the new worker node count.
Select OK.

The cluster status changes to UPDATE_IN_PROGRESS. New worker VMs are provisioned (or removed) as Compute instances. The status returns to UPDATE_COMPLETE when scaling finishes.

Delete a cluster#

Deleting a cluster removes its VMs, networks, control-plane endpoints, routers, and underlying Automation (Heat) stack.

Select Kubernetes > Clusters.
Find the cluster you want to delete. On its row, open the Settings gear icon dropdown and select Delete.
The Delete Cluster dialog opens. Select Confirm to delete the cluster.

The cluster status changes to DELETE_IN_PROGRESS. The Kubernetes service removes the associated VMs, networks, and control-plane endpoints automatically.

Next steps#

Kubernetes on Quake AI: architecture, templates, and resource planning
How to create a cluster template: define reusable cluster blueprints
Clusters Console: monitor and manage clusters in the console
Kubernetes CLI reference

Usage Guidelines

The sample code, software libraries, command line tools, proofs of concept, templates, and other related technology on this page (including any of the foregoing that is provided by Quake AI personnel) is provided to you as Quake AI Content under the Quake AI Customer Agreement, or the relevant written agreement between you and Quake AI (whichever applies). Do not use this Quake AI Content in your production accounts, or on production or other critical data. You are responsible for testing, securing, and optimizing the Quake AI Content (such as sample code) as appropriate for production grade use based on your specific quality control practices and standards. Deploying Quake AI Content may incur Quake AI charges for creating or using Quake AI chargeable resources, such as running Compute instances or storing data in Object Storage. Your use is also subject to the Acceptable Use Policy.

For the full policy, see Usage Guidelines.

Last validated: 28.05.2026

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How to Manage a Kubernetes Cluster

How to manage a Kubernetes cluster

View cluster status#

Access the cluster with kubectl#

Scale worker nodes#

Delete a cluster#

Next steps#

Usage Guidelines

Quick answers

See Also