A node can remain NotReady after maintenance if a runtime, network plugin, storage component, or health check did not recover. Workloads may stay unscheduled or be disrupted. What to check Review node conditions, kubelet and runtime status, CNI and CSI health, resource pressure, and maintenance logs. Compare with healthy nodes of the same pool....
A container can pass startup checks and then exit when its main process finishes, encounters a later error, or receives a termination signal. Health probes alone do not explain lifecycle. What to check Review container state and exit code, previous logs, events, command and arguments, signals, and controller type. Compare intended long-running service...
A cluster upgrade can disrupt workloads when APIs are deprecated, node pools roll too quickly, or workloads lack capacity and disruption planning. What to check Review supported API versions, upgrade notes, replica placement, disruption budgets, storage compatibility, and recovery options. Test manifests and workloads in a representative environment....
Service endpoints show that pods are selected, but requests can still fail because of application readiness, port mismatch, network policy, or protocol configuration. What to check Compare service and container ports, endpoint readiness, probe results, network policy, ingress path, and application logs. Test from inside and outside the cluster....
A pod may be unable to reach an external API because of egress policy, DNS, proxy requirements, NAT, or provider allowlists. What to check Test DNS and connectivity from the pod context, inspect network policies and egress gateways, confirm proxy variables, and compare expected source IPs. Recommended next step Apply the narrowest network change and...
Autoscaling can move workloads to nodes with different capacity, startup timing, storage, or network conditions. Restarts may follow resource pressure or readiness failures. What to check Correlate pod events with node scale activity, scheduling, limits, probes, storage attach, and application startup logs. Compare affected and stable nodes....