Time guide
- Initial checks: approximately 10 to 20 minutes
- Detailed investigation: approximately 20 to 60 minutes
Purpose#
Investigate Prometheus targets, ServiceMonitor discovery and scrape configuration.
Investigation workflow#
- Confirm the correct environment and context.
- Capture the current state before making changes.
- Run the read-only checks below.
- Review events, logs and dependencies.
- If a change is required, update the Git-managed desired state where applicable.
- Render, dry-run and review the change.
- Deploy or reconcile, then complete post-change validation.
Read-only checks#
kubectl get pods -n <monitoring-namespace>kubectl get servicemonitors -Akubectl get prometheusrules -Akubectl get services -A --show-labelsExpected result#
The relevant services and resources should report healthy or ready states, expected dependencies should be present, and recent warning events should not show a persistent unresolved fault.
Troubleshooting#
If a check fails:
- Confirm names, namespaces, contexts and permissions.
- Review recent events and service logs.
- Compare the live state with the documented desired state.
- Check storage, DNS, network and dependent services.
- Preserve evidence before restarting, deleting or recreating anything.
Safety notes#
These entries begin with read-only checks. Treat restart, delete, restore, reconcile, exposure and security-containment actions as state-changing operations. Confirm scope, impact, authorisation and rollback before proceeding. Replace all private names, addresses, identifiers and credentials with placeholders before publication or sharing.
Related entries#
- Kubernetes Cluster Health Checks
- Flux Reconciliation Commands
- GitOps Repository Structure
- Security Incident Triage