Kubernetes API Versions (apiVersion) and Common Resource Types

Every Kubernetes resource belongs to an API Group and API Version. The apiVersion field tells Kubernetes which API endpoint should process the resource definition.

Common Kubernetes API Versions

API Version	Common kind Values
v1	Pod, Service, PersistentVolume, PersistentVolumeClaim, ConfigMap, Secret, Namespace
apps/v1	Deployment, StatefulSet, DaemonSet, ReplicaSet
batch/v1	Job, CronJob
networking.k8s.io/v1	Ingress, NetworkPolicy
rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1	Role, ClusterRole, RoleBinding
storage.k8s.io/v1	StorageClass
autoscaling/v2	HorizontalPodAutoscaler

Checking Supported API Versions

You can check all API versions supported by your Kubernetes cluster by running the following command:

kubectl api-versions

Sample Output

Below is an example response from a Kubernetes cluster:

admissionregistration.k8s.io/v1
apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
apiregistration.k8s.io/v1
apps/v1
authentication.k8s.io/v1
authorization.k8s.io/v1
autoscaling/v1
autoscaling/v2
batch/v1
certificates.k8s.io/v1
coordination.k8s.io/v1
discovery.k8s.io/v1
events.k8s.io/v1
flowcontrol.apiserver.k8s.io/v1
monitoring.coreos.com/v1
monitoring.coreos.com/v1alpha1
networking.k8s.io/v1
node.k8s.io/v1
policy/v1
rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
scheduling.k8s.io/v1
storage.k8s.io/v1
v1

Understanding API Groups

API Group	Purpose
v1	Core Kubernetes resources such as Pods, Services, ConfigMaps, and Secrets.
apps	Workload controllers such as Deployments, StatefulSets, and DaemonSets.
batch	Batch-processing resources such as Jobs and CronJobs.
networking.k8s.io	Networking resources such as Ingresses and NetworkPolicies.
rbac.authorization.k8s.io	Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) resources.
storage.k8s.io	Storage-related resources such as StorageClasses.
autoscaling	Auto-scaling resources such as HorizontalPodAutoscalers.

Practical Rule: When creating a Kubernetes manifest, always verify that the apiVersion you use exists in the output of kubectl api-versions. API versions may differ across Kubernetes releases, and older versions are eventually deprecated and removed.