CKA Cluster Maintenance

Question 1

What is the purpose of 'kubectl drain' command?

Accepted Answer

To safely evict all Pods from a node for maintenance

Answer

kubectl drain safely evicts all Pods from a node, cordoning it to prevent new Pod scheduling, allowing maintenance work on the node.

Question 2

What is etcd backup important for?

Accepted Answer

It stores all cluster state and configuration data

Answer

etcd contains all cluster configuration, state, and secrets. Regular backups are critical because losing etcd data means losing the entire cluster state.

Question 3

How do you upgrade a Kubernetes cluster?

Accepted Answer

Upgrade control plane first, then worker nodes one at a time

Answer

Cluster upgrades follow a specific order: upgrade the control plane components first, then upgrade worker nodes one at a time (rolling upgrade) to maintain availability.

Question 4

What is a node cordon?

Accepted Answer

Marking a node as unschedulable so no new Pods are placed on it

Answer

Cordoning marks a node as unschedulable. Existing Pods continue running, but no new Pods will be scheduled on the cordoned node.

Question 5

What is the purpose of a Kubernetes health check (probe)?

Accepted Answer

To determine if a container is running correctly and ready to serve traffic

Answer

Health probes (liveness, readiness, startup) let Kubernetes know if a container is alive, ready for traffic, or still starting up, enabling automatic recovery.

(CKA) Certified Kubernetes Administrator Practice Test

(CKA) Certified Kubernetes Administrator Practice Test

CKA Cluster Maintenance