Static Pods

Cluster Architecture and Configuration / Guide 14 of 103 / Intermediate

• Kubernetes1.36.4
• Cluster4 nodes
• Runtimecontainerd 2.2.6
• CNICalico v3.32.1
• TimeAbout 30 min

Mirror hashes, addresses and line numbers in the kubelet config differ per cluster. The mechanism does not.

• kubelet config/var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml

This guide includes

Use this when a Pod refuses to be deleted, or when something has to run on a node before the API server exists. This matters because your control plane is already four static Pods - the kubelet runs them from disk and the API server only mirrors them.

• recognising the four static Pods you have been running since the cluster was built
• telling a static Pod from an ordinary one by its ownerReferences and mirror annotation
• finding staticPodPath in the kubelet config rather than assuming the directory
• creating one on a worker with no kubectl apply involved at all
• watching kubectl delete fail to remove it, and deleting the file instead

Before you start

• sudo on a node, because static pods are files on disk and nothing else can create them.
• kubectl against the same cluster, to watch what the API server makes of them.
• The Pods guide. A static pod is an ordinary Pod spec; only who runs it is different.

1. 1

   You have been running static pods since day one

2. 2

   How to tell a static pod from a normal one

3. 3

   Where the kubelet looks

4. 4

   Create one on a worker

5. 5

   Watch it appear through the API

6. 6

   kubectl delete cannot remove it

7. 7

   Remove the file instead

Official sources

• Static Pods
• Mirror pods
• kubelet configuration (staticPodPath)
• Troubleshooting clusters