Pod Resource Utilisation Check

Pod resource utilisation check validates the current resource utilisation metrics of Kubernetes pods.

Infrastructure type

• Kubernetes

Use cases

Pod Resource Utilisation Check probe helps you:

• Monitor resource usage during stress chaos experiments

• Verify resource limits are respected

• Validate application performance under load

• Ensure pods don't exceed resource thresholds

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Overview

This probe validates that pod resource utilisation (CPU and memory) remains within acceptable limits during chaos experiments. It requires metrics-server to be installed in the cluster.

Probe type

Command Probe

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes cluster with chaos infrastructure installed

• Metrics server installed and running in the cluster

• Access to target namespace and pods

• Sufficient RBAC permissions to query pod metrics

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Probe properties

Command

healthchecks -name pod-resource-metrics-check

Comparator

Type	Criteria	Value
string	contains	[Pass]

The probe passes when the command output contains [Pass], indicating pod resource utilisation is within acceptable limits.

Environment variables

Variable	Description	Required	Default
TARGET_LABELS	Comma-separated list of target labels to filter pods.	No	-
TARGET_NAMES	Comma-separated list of target pod names.	No	-
TARGET_NAMESPACE	Namespace of the target pods.	No	-
TARGET_KIND	Kind of the target resource (e.g., deployment, statefulset, daemonset).	No	deployment
TARGET_CONTAINER	Name of the container to check resource metrics.	No	-
METRIC_TYPE	Metric type to check: cpu or memory.	No	cpu
CPU_LIMIT	Pods should have CPU usage (in millicores) less than or equal to this value.	No	1000
MEMORY_LIMIT	Pods should have memory usage (in MB) less than or equal to this value.	No	1024
STATUS_CHECK_TIMEOUT	Maximum time in seconds to wait for status check.	No	180
STATUS_CHECK_DELAY	Delay in seconds between status checks.	No	2

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Run properties

Property	Description	Type	Default
timeout	Maximum time to wait for the probe to complete (e.g., 30s, 1m, 5m)	String	180s
interval	Time between probe executions (e.g., 1s, 5s, 10s)	String	1s
attempt	Number of retry attempts before marking the probe as failed	Integer	1
pollingInterval	Time between retry attempts (e.g., 1s, 5s, 10s)	String	-
initialDelay	Initial delay before starting the probe (e.g., 0s, 10s, 30s)	String	-
stopOnFailure	Stop the experiment if the probe fails	Boolean	false
verbosity	Log verbosity level (info, debug, trace)	String	-

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Probe definition

You can define this probe in your chaos experiment as follows:

CPU utilisation check

probe:
  - name: "cpu-utilisation-check"
    type: "cmdProbe"
    mode: "Continuous"
    cmdProbe/inputs:
      command: "healthchecks -name pod-resource-metrics-check"
      comparator:
        type: "string"
        criteria: "contains"
        value: "[Pass]"
      env:
        - name: TARGET_LABELS
          value: "app=nginx"
        - name: TARGET_NAMESPACE
          value: "production"
        - name: METRIC_TYPE
          value: "cpu"
        - name: CPU_LIMIT
          value: "800"
    runProperties:
      timeout: 180s
      interval: 1s
      attempt: 1
      stopOnFailure: false

Memory utilisation check

probe:
  - name: "memory-utilisation-check"
    type: "cmdProbe"
    mode: "Continuous"
    cmdProbe/inputs:
      command: "healthchecks -name pod-resource-metrics-check"
      comparator:
        type: "string"
        criteria: "contains"
        value: "[Pass]"
      env:
        - name: TARGET_NAMES
          value: "my-app-pod"
        - name: TARGET_NAMESPACE
          value: "default"
        - name: TARGET_CONTAINER
          value: "app-container"
        - name: METRIC_TYPE
          value: "memory"
        - name: MEMORY_LIMIT
          value: "2048"
    runProperties:
      timeout: 180s
      interval: 2s
      attempt: 3