--- title: Installing and Configuring kubectl --- `kubectl` is a CLI utility for running commands against Kubernetes clusters. It's required for many maintenance and administrative tasks in Rancher 2.x. ## Installation See [kubectl Installation](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl/) for installation on your operating system. ## Configuration When you create a Kubernetes cluster with RKE2/K3s, the Kubeconfig file is stored at `/etc/rancher/rke2/rke2.yaml` or `/etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml` depending on your chosen distribution. These files are used to configure access to the Kubernetes cluster. Test your connectivity with `kubectl` and see if you can get the list of nodes back. ```shell kubectl get nodes NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION 165.227.114.63 Ready controlplane,etcd,worker 11m v1.10.1 165.227.116.167 Ready controlplane,etcd,worker 11m v1.10.1 165.227.127.226 Ready controlplane,etcd,worker 11m v1.10.1 ```