Hands-on Lab·Certified Kubernetes Administrator
Probes and Pod Lifecycle
Three probes that look similar and do entirely different things: one gates traffic, one restarts the container, one buys time at startup. Then the other end of the lifecycle, where a preStop hook and SIGTERM decide whether shutdown drops requests.
Configuration and Secrets Guide 36 of 103 Intermediate
- Kubernetes1.36.4
- Cluster4 nodes
- Runtimecontainerd 2.2.6
- CNICalico v3.32.1
- TimeAbout 35 min
- Reviewed21 August 2026
Written against the versions above. Timings and restart counts depend on how long you wait. The probe semantics do not.
| Server Name | IP Address | OS | Roles | CPU | RAM | HDD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CKA1001 | 192.168.0.175 | Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | Control Plane Node | 2 Core | 4 GB | 50 GB |
| CKA1001-NODE01 | 192.168.0.176 | Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | Worker Node | 2 Core | 4 GB | 50 GB |
| CKA1001-NODE02 | 192.168.0.177 | Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | Worker Node | 2 Core | 4 GB | 50 GB |
| CKA1001-NODE03 | 192.168.0.178 | Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | Worker Node | 2 Core | 4 GB | 50 GB |
Before you start
- A working cluster and
kubectl. - The Deployments guide helps: readiness is what makes
maxUnavailable: 0mean anything during a rollout. - Willingness to wait about a minute at the liveness step, because the probe has to fail on its own schedule.
-
Three probes, three jobs
-
Ready is a condition, not a status
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A failing liveness probe restarts the container
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Shutdown: preStop, then SIGTERM, then the grace period
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Clean up