The api Pods start, exit, and restart with a growing back-off. That's CrashLoopBackOff: the kubelet keeps restarting a container that keeps failing.
About this scenario
The api Pods start, exit, and restart with a growing back-off. That's CrashLoopBackOff: the kubelet keeps restarting a container that keeps failing.
The cause is in the container's own output. Find it, then fix the configuration the Deployment reads.
Objectives
- Find the error in the logs
- Add DATABASE_URL to the api-config ConfigMap
- All api Pods are Ready with no restarts
What you'll practice
- CrashLoopBackOff means the container started and then exited, over and over. The reason is usually in its logs.
kubectl logs --previousshows the output of the last crashed run when the current one hasn't logged anything yet.- Changing a ConfigMap doesn't change environment variables in running Pods. A rollout restart does.
How the playground works
The cluster runs entirely in your browser: a simulated API server, scheduler, kubelets and controllers, with virtual nodes in three zones. kubectl output follows the real formats, errors use the real messages, and the add-ons (CSI storage, Traefik, Envoy Gateway, cert-manager, Flux, Argo CD) behave like their real counterparts for the common paths. It's a simulation, so some behavior is simplified. Your progress is saved in this browser.