Kube-probe Probe failed: invalid SSL certificate

The SSL certificate used by the application is invalid or expired.

Understanding Kube-probe

Kube-probe is an essential component of Kubernetes, responsible for monitoring the health of applications running within a Kubernetes cluster. It helps ensure that applications are running smoothly by performing regular checks, known as probes, on the containers. These probes can be of different types, such as liveness, readiness, and startup probes, each serving a specific purpose in maintaining application health.

Identifying the Symptom

One common issue encountered with Kube-probe is the error message: Probe failed: invalid SSL certificate. This error indicates that the probe could not successfully verify the SSL certificate of the application it is monitoring. As a result, the application may be marked as unhealthy, leading to potential disruptions in service.

Exploring the Issue

What Causes the Error?

The primary cause of this error is an invalid or expired SSL certificate. SSL certificates are crucial for establishing secure connections, and if they are not valid, the probe cannot authenticate the application's identity. This can occur due to several reasons, such as the certificate being expired, misconfigured, or not trusted by the probe.

Impact on Application Health

When Kube-probe encounters an invalid SSL certificate, it may repeatedly fail the health checks, causing Kubernetes to restart the pod or mark it as unready. This can lead to application downtime or degraded performance, affecting end-user experience.

Steps to Fix the Issue

1. Verify the SSL Certificate

First, ensure that the SSL certificate is valid and correctly configured. You can use tools like SSL Checker to verify the certificate's validity and expiration date. If the certificate is expired, you will need to renew it with your certificate authority.

2. Update the SSL Certificate

Once you have a valid certificate, update it in your application. This typically involves replacing the old certificate files with the new ones and ensuring that your application is configured to use them. For example, if you are using Nginx, update the ssl_certificate and ssl_certificate_key directives in your configuration file.

server {
listen 443 ssl;
ssl_certificate /path/to/new/certificate.crt;
ssl_certificate_key /path/to/new/private.key;
...
}

3. Restart the Application

After updating the certificate, restart your application to apply the changes. This can be done using Kubernetes commands such as:

kubectl rollout restart deployment/your-deployment-name

4. Verify the Fix

Finally, verify that the issue is resolved by checking the probe status. You can use the following command to check the status of your pods:

kubectl get pods

Ensure that the pods are running and not in a crash loop. Additionally, monitor the logs to confirm that the SSL certificate error is no longer present.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can resolve the "Probe failed: invalid SSL certificate" issue in Kube-probe. Regularly monitoring and updating SSL certificates is crucial for maintaining application security and health. For more information on managing SSL certificates in Kubernetes, refer to the Kubernetes documentation.

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