OpenShift Health Probes¶

Introduction¶

Health probes decide when OpenShift sends traffic to a pod and when the kubelet restarts it. Bad probe paths, slow startup, or missing ports can make a healthy application look broken.

Before You Start¶

Make sure you are in the correct project and know whether the application is driven by a Deployment, DeploymentConfig, BuildConfig, ImageStream, or external registry image.

Practical Examples¶

oc describe deployment web -n app

oc set probe deployment/web --readiness --get-url=http://:8080/ready -n app

oc set probe deployment/web --liveness --get-url=http://:8080/health -n app

oc rollout status deployment/web -n app

Example output:

deployment.apps/web probes updated
deployment "web" successfully rolled out

Example YAML¶

readinessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /ready
    port: 8080
  initialDelaySeconds: 10
  periodSeconds: 5
livenessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /health
    port: 8080
  initialDelaySeconds: 30
  periodSeconds: 10

Verification¶

oc describe pod -l app=web -n app

oc get events -n app --field-selector involvedObject.kind=Pod

oc exec deploy/web -n app -- curl -sS http://127.0.0.1:8080/ready

Troubleshooting¶

Check probe paths from inside the pod, review readiness and liveness events, then adjust probe timing or endpoints based on the application startup behavior.

Common Mistakes¶

• Using a liveness probe for slow dependency checks.
• Setting initialDelaySeconds too low for JVM or large applications.
• Pointing probes at a route instead of the local container endpoint.

Quick Checklist¶

• Confirm the active project.
• Inspect the exact object named in the error.
• Read recent events.
• Apply one focused fix.
• Verify status after the change.

Related Guides¶

• Openshift New App Explained
• Openshift Imagestream Explained
• Openshift Application Deployment Checklist

Summary¶

OpenShift Health Probes should be verified with commands that match the OpenShift object being changed or investigated.