Kubernetes Probes: Liveness vs Readiness, Explained

Abstract technical illustration for the article: Kubernetes Probes: Liveness vs Readiness, Explained

Liveness, readiness, and startup probes each trigger a different Kubernetes reaction — restart, traffic removal, or a startup grace period — and confusing them is one of the most common sources of avoidable production incidents. This article explains what each probe checks, exactly what the kubelet does on each failure, and the misconfigurations that cause the most damage.