Pod Startup Time Check

Built-in Command Probe template that validates whether Kubernetes pods start within an acceptable duration during a chaos experiment.

Pod Startup Time Check is a built-in Command Probe template that validates whether Kubernetes pods start within an acceptable duration during a chaos experiment. Use it to confirm that applications initialize quickly after pod creation or restart, which matters during rollouts and recovery from disruption. You select pods by label, by name, or by the owning workload kind and namespace.

The probe runs the healthchecks utility bundled in the chaos probe image, queries the Kubernetes API, and prints [Pass] when all targeted pods start within STARTUP_DURATION_CUTOFF. The comparator marks the probe as passed when the output contains [Pass].

BUILT-IN PROBE TEMPLATE

This is a built-in Command Probe template that runs on Kubernetes chaos infrastructure. Add it to an experiment from the probe library and customize its inputs. Go to Built-in probe templates to browse the full library, or go to Command probe to understand how command probes work.

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Use cases

Use this probe template to:

• Validate that pods start within acceptable timeframes.

• Monitor deployment performance during rollouts.

• Detect slow startup issues during chaos experiments.

• Confirm that application readiness times stay optimal.

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How the probe works

The template configures a Command Probe that runs healthchecks -name validate-pod-startup-time. The utility resolves the target pods from TARGET_LABELS, TARGET_NAMES, TARGET_KIND, and TARGET_NAMESPACE, excludes pods older than AGE_CRITERIA, and prints [Pass] when every remaining pod starts within STARTUP_DURATION_CUTOFF. The comparator passes the probe when the output contains [Pass], and fails it otherwise.

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Prerequisites

• Chaos infrastructure: A Kubernetes chaos infrastructure installed in the target cluster.

• Namespace access: Access to the target namespace and pods.

• RBAC permissions: Permissions for the chaos service account to query pod status and events.

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Probe properties

Command

healthchecks -name validate-pod-startup-time

Comparator

Type	Criteria	Value
string	contains	[Pass]

The probe passes when the command output contains [Pass], which indicates that all targeted pods started within the specified duration.

Environment variables

Variable	Description	Required	Default
TARGET_LABELS	Comma-separated list of labels used to filter pods (for example, app=nginx).	No	-
TARGET_NAMES	Comma-separated list of target pod names.	No	-
TARGET_NAMESPACE	Namespace of the target pods.	Yes	-
TARGET_KIND	Kind of the owning workload (for example, deployment, statefulset, daemonset).	No	deployment
AGE_CRITERIA	Pods older than this age, in seconds, are excluded from the check.	No	300
STARTUP_DURATION_CUTOFF	All pods must start within this duration, in seconds.	No	300
STATUS_CHECK_TIMEOUT	Maximum time in seconds to wait for the 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 (for example, 30s, 1m, 5m).	String	180s
interval	Time between probe executions (for example, 1s, 5s, 10s).	String	1s
attempt	Number of retry attempts before the probe is marked as failed.	Integer	1
pollingInterval	Time between retry attempts (for example, 1s, 5s, 10s).	String	-
initialDelay	Initial delay before the probe starts (for example, 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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Troubleshooting

Pod Startup Time Check probe fails because pods started too slowly

One or more pods took longer than STARTUP_DURATION_CUTOFF to become ready. Inspect the pods with kubectl describe pod to find slow image pulls, init containers, or readiness probe delays, then either tune the workload or raise STARTUP_DURATION_CUTOFF if the longer startup is acceptable.

Pod Startup Time Check probe fails because no pods matched the target

The selectors did not resolve any pods, or all matching pods were excluded by AGE_CRITERIA. Confirm that TARGET_LABELS, TARGET_NAMES, TARGET_NAMESPACE, and TARGET_KIND match the workload, and that AGE_CRITERIA is large enough to include the pods you want to check.

Pod Startup Time Check probe fails with a forbidden or RBAC error

The chaos service account does not have permission to read pods or events in the target namespace. Grant get and list on pods and events for the chaos service account in that namespace, then rerun the experiment.

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Related probe templates

• Pod Status Check: Validate that pods stay in the Running state.

• Pod Replica Count Check: Validate that a workload keeps its minimum healthy replicas.

• Built-in probe templates: Browse the full probe template library.