Changing Node IPs in Kubernetes: Why It's a Bad Idea and What to Do Instead
Changing the IP addresses of Kubernetes nodes is rarely a good idea — it can lead to broken networking, node unavailability, or even complete cluster failure. This article explains why you should avoid it, and provides a step-by-step recovery plan if you must do it. 1. Why Node IPs Matter Kubernetes heavily relies on the IP addresses of nodes for: Scheduling and node identity kubelet and API server communication CNI and network overlays DNS and service discovery TLS certificates tied to node IPs Changing an IP breaks all these associations — kubelet may fail to register, Pods may not communicate, and the control plane may mark the node as NotReady. ...