Kube-probe is a diagnostic tool used in Kubernetes to check the health of containers running within pods. It helps ensure that applications are running smoothly by performing liveness and readiness checks. These probes are crucial for maintaining the desired state of applications and ensuring high availability.
One common symptom that developers encounter is the readiness probe failure, often indicated by an error message such as: Readiness probe failed: dependency service down
. This message suggests that the application is not ready to serve traffic due to an unavailable dependent service.
When this issue occurs, you may notice that the application is not receiving traffic, and the pod status may show as NotReady
. This can lead to disruptions in service availability and user experience.
The readiness probe failure indicates that a service required by your application is not accessible. This could be due to network issues, the service not being started, or incorrect service configurations. The readiness probe checks if the application is ready to handle requests, and if it fails, Kubernetes will not route traffic to the pod.
To resolve the readiness probe failure, follow these steps:
Ensure that all dependent services are running. You can use the following command to check the status of services:
kubectl get services
Verify that the services your application depends on are listed and running.
Use the following command to check network connectivity between your application pod and the dependent service:
kubectl exec <pod-name> -- curl -I http://<service-name>:<port>
This command attempts to connect to the service from within the pod. If it fails, investigate network policies or DNS configurations.
Check the logs of both your application and the dependent service for any errors or warnings:
kubectl logs <pod-name>
Look for any indications of why the service might be unavailable or why the probe is failing.
If the issue persists, review and update the readiness probe configuration in your deployment YAML file. Ensure the probe is correctly configured to check the right endpoints and ports.
readinessProbe:
httpGet:
path: /healthz
port: 8080
initialDelaySeconds: 5
periodSeconds: 10
For more information on configuring probes in Kubernetes, refer to the official Kubernetes documentation. Additionally, explore Kubernetes Services to understand how services are managed and accessed.
(Perfect for DevOps & SREs)
(Perfect for DevOps & SREs)