Software Design

Kubernetes Readiness vs Liveness Probes

UML Sequence Diagrams · made in Skemio

Sequence diagram comparing Kubelet interaction with Pod, Endpoints Controller, and CoreDNS during readiness failure versus liveness restart.
Sequence diagram comparing Kubelet interaction with Pod, Endpoints Controller, and CoreDNS during readiness failure versus liveness restart.
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What it shows

  • Readiness failures isolate traffic by detaching the pod from Service endpoints.
  • Liveness failures trigger container restarts to resolve hard deadlocks.
  • Conflating both checks leads to cascading restart loops under heavy load.

The takeaway

Use readiness to shield overloaded pods and liveness to recover from unrecoverable deadlocks.

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