The Desi Architect
Notes / Docker Sandboxes / Node Failure: The Tatkal Capstone
Docker Sandboxes · Tier 5: Orchestrate: Kubernetes on your laptop · Lab 65

Node Failure: The Tatkal Capstone

Experience a real Kubernetes worker node failure and watch self-healing recover your application. Spread pods across multiple nodes, simulate an abrupt host crash on port 18305, measure client traffic resilience, and observe automatic pod eviction and node recovery.

Time45 minutes
StackKubernetes v1.37Ports 18305
Memory1.4GB
Before thisLab 62Readiness, Liveness and Startup Pr
Download lab (.zip) View steps
Verified runWindows, Mac, LinuxBash and PowerShell
  1. 1PrepareWhat you will learn
  2. 2PredictGuess before you run
  3. 3RunStep by step
  4. 4ObserveWhat you should see
  5. 5Break itChange one thing
  6. 6Clean upLeave nothing running
On this page
  1. 00 / What You Will Learn
  2. 01 / Why It Matters
  3. 02 / What We Are Building
  4. 03 / Words You Need
  5. 04 / Predict First
  6. 05 / Step by Step
  7. 06 / What You Should See
  8. 07 / Look Inside
  9. 08 / Break It, Fix It
  10. 09 / In Real Projects
  11. 10 / Interview Corner
  12. 11 / Clean Up

00 /What You Will Learn

By the end you will be able to
  • Distribute replicas across physical or virtual machines using Topology Spread Constraints.
  • Configure custom tolerations to control pod eviction delays when nodes report NotReady.
  • Simulate real hardware crashes by terminating a worker node container with Docker.
  • Measure real-time traffic availability and observe endpoint reconciliation during node outages.
  • Verify seamless node recovery and cluster re-registration when failed hosts power back up.

Before you start

Finish Lab 60 (Your First Cluster), Lab 61 (Services and Load Balancing), and Lab 62 (Probes and Self-Healing) first. You should understand how Services route traffic across pods. Give Docker at least 4 GB of memory, and make sure kind and kubectl are installed.