Using kubectl to restart helm pods - kubectl

Question

Still pretty new to kubectl. I have a Rancher test environment (deployed via Terraform) that I am learning things on. I received a timeout error while trying to deploy a new k8s cluster to my environment. I looked at the pods and found 4 helm pods, all with errors:
% kubectl get pods --all-namespaces
NAMESPACE NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
cattle-logging rancher-logging-fluentd-linux-6x8vr 2/2 Running 0 20h
cattle-logging rancher-logging-fluentd-linux-9llsf 2/2 Running 0 20h
cattle-logging rancher-logging-fluentd-linux-hhwtb 2/2 Running 0 20h
cattle-logging rancher-logging-fluentd-linux-rzbc8 2/2 Running 0 20h
cattle-logging rancher-logging-log-aggregator-linux-9q6w8 1/1 Running 0 20h
cattle-logging rancher-logging-log-aggregator-linux-b27c4 1/1 Running 0 20h
cattle-logging rancher-logging-log-aggregator-linux-h8q75 1/1 Running 0 20h
cattle-logging rancher-logging-log-aggregator-linux-hhbk7 1/1 Running 0 20h
cattle-system helm-operation-2ztsk 1/2 Error 0 41m
cattle-system helm-operation-7jlwf 1/2 Error 0 12m
cattle-system helm-operation-fv5hq 1/2 Error 0 55m
cattle-system helm-operation-zbdnd 1/2 Error 0 27m
cattle-system rancher-6f77f5cbb4-cs4sp 2/2 Running 0 42m
cattle-system rancher-6f77f5cbb4-gvkv7 2/2 Running 0 42m
cattle-system rancher-6f77f5cbb4-jflnb 2/2 Running 0 42m
cert-manager cert-manager-cainjector-596464bfbd-zj2wg 1/1 Running 0 6h39m
cert-manager cert-manager-df467b89d-c5kdw 1/1 Running 0 6h39m
cert-manager cert-manager-df467b89d-kbvgm 1/1 Running 0 6h39m
cert-manager cert-manager-df467b89d-lndnp 1/1 Running 0 6h40m
cert-manager cert-manager-webhook-55f8bd4b8c-m58n2 1/1 Running 0 6h39m
fleet-system fleet-agent-6688b99df5-n26zf 1/1 Running 0 6h40m
fleet-system fleet-controller-6dc545d5db-f6f2t 1/1 Running 0 6h40m
fleet-system gitjob-84bd8cf9c4-4q95g 1/1 Running 0 6h40m
ingress-nginx nginx-nginx-ingress-controller-58689b79d9-44q95 1/1 Running 0 6h40m
ingress-nginx nginx-nginx-ingress-controller-58689b79d9-blgpf 1/1 Running 0 6h39m
ingress-nginx nginx-nginx-ingress-controller-58689b79d9-wkdg9 1/1 Running 0 6h40m
ingress-nginx nginx-nginx-ingress-default-backend-65d7b58ccc-tbwlk 1/1 Running 0 6h39m
kube-system coredns-799dffd9c4-nmplh 1/1 Running 0 6h39m
kube-system coredns-799dffd9c4-stjhl 1/1 Running 0 6h40m
kube-system coredns-autoscaler-7868844956-qr67l 1/1 Running 0 6h41m
kube-system kube-flannel-5wzd7 2/2 Running 0 20h
kube-system kube-flannel-hm7tc 2/2 Running 0 20h
kube-system kube-flannel-hptdm 2/2 Running 0 20h
kube-system kube-flannel-jjbpq 2/2 Running 0 20h
kube-system kube-flannel-pqfkh 2/2 Running 0 20h
kube-system metrics-server-59c6fd6767-ngrzg 1/1 Running 0 6h40m
kube-system rke-coredns-addon-deploy-job-l7n2b 0/1 Completed 0 20h
kube-system rke-metrics-addon-deploy-job-bkpf2 0/1 Completed 0 20h
kube-system rke-network-plugin-deploy-job-vht9d 0/1 Completed 0 20h
metallb-system controller-7686dfc96b-fn7hw 1/1 Running 0 6h39m
metallb-system speaker-9l8fp 1/1 Running 0 20h
metallb-system speaker-9mxp2 1/1 Running 0 20h
metallb-system speaker-b2ltt 1/1 Running 0 20h
rancher-operator-system rancher-operator-576f654978-5c4kb 1/1 Running 0 6h39m
I would like to see if restarting the pods would set them straight, but I cannot figure out how to do so. Helm does not show up under kubectl get deployments --all-namespaces, so I cannot scale the pods or do a kubectl rollout restart.
How can I restart these pods?

Answer 1

You could try to see more information about a specific pod for troubleshooting with the command : kubectl describe pod

Answer 2

As you already noticed, restarting the Pods might not be the way to go with your problem. The better solution would be to try to get a better idea of what exactly went wrong on focus on fixing that. In order to do so you can follow the below steps (in that order):
Debugging Pods by executing kubectl describe pods ${POD_NAME} and checking the reason behind it's failure. Note that, once your pod has been scheduled, the methods described in Debug Running Pods are available for debugging. These methods are:
Examining pod logs: with kubectl logs ${POD_NAME} ${CONTAINER_NAME} or kubectl logs --previous ${POD_NAME} ${CONTAINER_NAME}
Debugging with container exec: by running commands inside a specific container with kubectl exec
Debugging with an ephemeral debug container: Ephemeral containers are useful for interactive troubleshooting when kubectl exec is insufficient because a container has crashed or a container image doesn't include debugging utilities, such as with distroless images. kubectl has an alpha command that can create ephemeral containers for debugging beginning with version v1.18.
Debugging via a shell on the node: If none of these approaches work, you can find the host machine that the pod is running on and SSH into that host
Those steps should be enough to get into the core of the problem and than focus on fixing it.