Kubectl Command: Finding Top CPU Consumers

Sometimes you don’t want to open Grafana. You just want to know: “Who is eating my CPU?”

Here is the one-liner I use every day:

kubectl top pods -A --sort-by='cpu' | head -10

Breakdown

• kubectl top pods: Uses the Metrics Server to fetch real-time usage.
• -A: Checks All Namespaces (don’t hide in default).
• --sort-by='cpu': The magic flag. Sorts the output.
• | head -10: Shows only the top offenders.

Pro Tip: Memory

Want to find memory leaks instead? Just swap the sort key:

kubectl top pods -A --sort-by='memory' | head -10

Add this to your .zshrc as an alias (kcpu and kmem) and thank me later.