Kubernetes Troubleshooting for Infrastructure Engineers

In this lab, you will take on the role of an engineer handed a broken environment. You will diagnose and resolve a series of real-world Kubernetes problems using core kubectl commands and Headlamp, a modern Kubernetes web dashboard. You will also install K9s, a Kubernetes UI terminal, and explore its features. You will then work through a progressive CrashLoop Challenge, investigating five broken deployments and returning them to a healthy state.

• Diagnose misconfigured Helm charts and correct service type and networking issues.
• Resolve MetalLB IP allocation problems by inspecting and correcting address pool configurations.
• Install and navigate Headlamp to visually inspect cluster resources.
• Install and use K9s as a terminal-based cluster management and troubleshooting tool.
• Investigate CrashLoopBackOff pods using kubectl describe and kubectl logs.
• Identify and fix common failure patterns including bad exit codes, missing environment variables, missing ConfigMaps, misconfigured probes, and invalid image references.

• 8 x Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.6 VMs
• Kubernetes 1.34.1
• Headlamp
• K9s
• Helm