Install Kubernetes Packages

By package manager

Ubuntu

Add the Kubernetes repository:

$ curl -fsSL https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.32/deb/Release.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg
$ echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.32/deb/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list

Install kubelet, kubeadm and kubectl, and pin their versions:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -y kubelet kubeadm kubectl
$ sudo apt-mark hold kubelet kubeadm kubectl
kubelet set on hold.
kubeadm set on hold.
kubectl set on hold.

$ kubeadm version -o yaml
clientVersion:
  buildDate: "2025-03-11T19:57:38Z"
  compiler: gc
  gitCommit: 32cc146f75aad04beaaa245a7157eb35063a9f99
  gitTreeState: clean
  gitVersion: v1.32.3
  goVersion: go1.23.6
  major: "1"
  minor: "32"
  platform: linux/amd64

Default output style is Go style, which is why -o yaml is needed.

Tip

If you want to upgrade these components, you can unpin them by:

$ sudo apt-mark unhold kubelet kubeadm kubectl
Canceled hold on kubelet.
Canceled hold on kubeadm.
Canceled hold on kubectl.

Dowload kubectl manually

kubectl can be installed anywhere to access k8s system.

macOS

For Intel silicon:

$ curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl"

For Apple silicon:

$ curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl"

$ chmod +x kubectl
$ sudo mv kubectl /usr/local/bin

Check the versions:

$ kubectl version
Client Version: v1.32.0
Kustomize Version: v5.5.0
Server Version: v1.32.0