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Kubernetes Troubleshooting Playbook

Systematic debugging of Pod failures, networking issues, storage problems, and control plane incidents in Kubernetes.

🎯Key Takeaways
CrashLoopBackOff = app keeps crashing (check logs)
Pending = scheduling failure (check events for resource/taint issues)
ImagePullBackOff = registry auth or image name wrong

Kubernetes Troubleshooting Playbook

Systematic debugging of Pod failures, networking issues, storage problems, and control plane incidents in Kubernetes.

~1 min read
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What you'll learn
  • CrashLoopBackOff = app keeps crashing (check logs)
  • Pending = scheduling failure (check events for resource/taint issues)
  • ImagePullBackOff = registry auth or image name wrong

The Debug Loop

Start with kubectl get pods + kubectl describe pod <name> + kubectl logs <pod>. The describe output shows events (failed scheduling, image pull errors). Logs show application errors. For networking, kubectl exec into a pod and run curl tests.

Key takeaways

  • CrashLoopBackOff = app keeps crashing (check logs)
  • Pending = scheduling failure (check events for resource/taint issues)
  • ImagePullBackOff = registry auth or image name wrong

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