Exec commands on kubernetes pods with root access

Question

I have one pod running with name 'jenkins-app-2843651954-4zqdp'. I want to install few softwares temporarily on this pod. How can I do this?

I am trying this- kubectl exec -it jenkins-app-2843651954-4zqdp -- /bin/bash and then running apt-get install commands but since the user I am accessing with doesn't have sudo access I am not able to run commands

Answer 1

• Use kubectl describe pod ... to find the node running your Pod and the container ID (docker://...)
• SSH into the node
• run docker exec -it -u root ID /bin/bash

Answer 2

There are some plugins for kubectl that may help you achieve this: https://github.com/jordanwilson230/kubectl-plugins

One of the plugins called, 'ssh', will allow you to exec as root user by running (for example) kubectl ssh -u root -p nginx-0