Static Pods

Static Pods in Kubernetes: What, Why, and How In Kubernetes, most pods are managed by the control plane through controllers like Deployments or DaemonSets. However, there’s a special kind of pod called a static pod. These are managed directly by the kubelet on each node, bypassing the Kubernetes API server. Why Use Static Pods? Static pods are useful when: You want to ensure critical system components (like logging or monitoring agents) are always running. You don’t want to rely on the control plane to schedule pods. You’re bootstrapping a Kubernetes cluster and need kubelet to run etcd or control-plane components before the API server is available. Key Characteristics Managed only by the kubelet. Not visible via kubectl get pods unless mirrored by the API server. Defined using simple YAML files placed in a designated directory. How to Create a Static Pod 1. Enable Static Pod Path on Kubelet Make sure the --pod-manifest-path is set in your kubelet config or systemd service file: ...