Tech-Gen

🔥 Kubernetes Troubleshooting Made Simple! 🔥

Managing workloads on Kubernetes can be tricky — but with the right commands, you can cut debugging time in half.

Here’s a practical cheatsheet 🛠️ for engineers, SREs, and DevOps teams:

1️⃣ Confirm Cluster & Namespace

⚡ kubectl config current-context → check context

⚡ kubectl get ns → list namespaces

⚡ kubectl get pods -n <namespace> → list pods

2️⃣ Get the Big Picture

📌 kubectl get nodes → nodes

📌 kubectl get pods -A → all pods

📌 kubectl get deployments -A → deployments

📌 kubectl get events -A --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp → recent events

3️⃣ Inspect Failing Pods

🔍 kubectl describe pod <pod> -n <ns>

📜 kubectl logs <pod> -n <ns>

💡 kubectl exec -it <pod> -n <ns> -- /bin/sh

4️⃣ Probes & Health Checks

🩺 Readiness & liveness probes → check with kubectl describe

🩺 Test endpoint inside pod:

kubectl exec -it <pod> -n <ns> -- curl -sv localhost:<port>/health

5️⃣ Rollouts, History & Recovery

⏳ kubectl rollout status deployment/<name> -n <ns>

📜 kubectl rollout history deployment/<name> -n <ns>

🔄 kubectl rollout undo deployment/<name> -n <ns>

6️⃣ Networking & Services

🌐 kubectl get svc -n <ns> → list services

🔗 kubectl get endpoints -n <ns> → check endpoints

🧭 kubectl exec -it <pod> -n <ns> -- nslookup <service> → DNS test

🚪 kubectl port-forward svc/<svc> 8080:80 -n <ns> → local test

7️⃣ Storage Debugging

💾 kubectl get pvc -n <ns> → list PVCs

📂 kubectl describe pvc <pvc> -n <ns> → inspect PVC

⚠️ Look for mount errors in pod describe

8️⃣ Resources, Logs & Quick Fixes

📊 kubectl top nodes / kubectl top pods -n <ns> → usage

📜 Use stern/kubetail → tail logs across pods

🔄 kubectl rollout restart deployment/<name> -n <ns>

🔄 kubectl delete pod <pod> -n <ns> → recreate pod

💡 Save this post for your next K8s firefight. Troubleshooting doesn’t have to feel like guesswork — it’s about following a structured checklist.