Boost Kubernetes Reliability by Managing the Human Factor 

As technology takes the driver’s seat in our lives, Kubernetes is taking center stage in IT operations. Google first introduced Kubernetes in 2014 to handle high-demand workloads. Today, it has become the go-to choice for cloud-native environments. Kubernetes’ primary purpose is to simplify the management of distributed systems and offer a smooth interface for handling containerized applications no matter where they’re deployed. With its wide range of features, Kubernetes has reshaped the way we create and launch software.

However, the automation and orchestration advantages of Kubernetes bring their own major challenge: dealing with an ever-evolving, distributed system. Beyond simply deploying containers, Kubernetes involves various tasks, from ensuring security to handling storage, which can create a maze-like ecosystem. This complexity can lead to human error and thus vulnerable Kubernetes clusters.

In this blog, we’ll dive into how human error has become a top cause of issues in Kubernetes clusters. We’ll analyze the results of key reports, look at specific outage events, and discuss how innovative tools such as Komodor can help solve these problems.

Human Errors as a Major Cause of Kubernetes Issues

The adage “to err is human” rings particularly true in the world of Kubernetes, as human error has emerged as a leading cause of issues within Kubernetes clusters. These mistakes can prove expensive and potentially disastrous in a world increasingly dependent on seamless technological functioning.

The Uptime Institute’s 2022 Outage Analysis presented some notable data. A significant 40% of organizations surveyed attributed at least one major outage in the previous three years to human error, spotlighting the vulnerabilities in these intricate environments. Furthermore, a consequential fallout from these disruptions is the potential for security incidents. In fact, Red Hat’s “2022 state of Kubernetes security report” revealed that an astounding 93% of DevOps, engineering, and security professionals acknowledged at least one Kubernetes-related security incident in the prior 12 months as a result of such outages.

These numbers paint a grim picture of IT operations today, particularly in the context of Kubernetes.

Lack of Expertise, Pace of Application Development

Why is human error such a pervasive issue in Kubernetes clusters? There are multiple aspects to consider. The lack of specific expertise in managing Kubernetes is one primary reason. Security teams may not be well-versed in securing containers in Kubernetes, creating a challenging situation for organizations.

Another critical factor lies in the cognitive load on developers. With Kubernetes, developers are expected to understand and maintain intricate applications, often far removed from their domain expertise. Kubernetes applications are a world apart from traditional application development, requiring an understanding of infrastructure concerns, which developers might not possess. This cognitive load can lead to misconfigurations and errors, further destabilizing the Kubernetes clusters.

Moreover, the pace of application development can often outstrip the ability of central security teams to keep up. In an era where speed is crucial, security considerations can sometimes be left behind, resulting in vulnerabilities ripe for exploitation.

According to those surveyed in Red Hat’s 2023 Kubernetes security report, 21% said that a security incident had resulted in an employee being fired—clearly indicating the connection between incidents and employee actions. The data underscores the importance of adequate training and support for developers and security teams in navigating the complex Kubernetes landscape.

Improper Tooling, Intricate Interdependencies

The intricate interdependencies within Kubernetes environments represent a significant challenge. An analysis of Komodor’s users revealed that 61% of the issues it identified were automatically correlated to a change in the same service—or another service causing upstream services to fail. This highlights the potential for a minor modification to create a ripple effect, leading to significant outages.

In addition to these complexities, improper security tooling can leave organizations vulnerable. Tools designed to protect traditional environments may not be well suited to the unique challenges posed by containers and orchestration platforms like Kubernetes. So, while managing and understanding the interdependencies is crucial, having robust security measures in place is equally essential for the overall stability and reliability of Kubernetes environments.

As we examine a few specific incidents in the next section, we’ll see just how significant these human errors can be. Fortunately, there are promising solutions to mitigate such issues, which we’ll explore later in the post.

Major Outages Caused by Human Errors

Human errors, while seemingly harmless, can lead to dramatic, often catastrophic consequences, especially in systems as complex as Kubernetes clusters. Below, we look at some of the significant outages caused by human errors and the cascading effects they had.

Reddit “Pi Day” Outage in 2023

In 2023, Reddit faced a severe outage that was traced back to an error in their Kubernetes configuration. The detailed postmortem analysis source revealed that a malfunction within the container network interface (CNI), an essential component in Kubernetes networking, led to the issue. While the specifics of the event were unique to Reddit, the lesson that a minor misconfiguration can cause significant disruptions was a potent reminder of the pitfalls of human error in these complex environments.

AWS US-East-1 Outage in 2021

Another notable incident that occurred was the AWS us-east-1 outage, which brought a significant portion of the internet to a halt. This event was instigated by an automated activity that unintentionally sparked a surge of connection activity, leading to network congestion and performance issues. The human error here was not direct but rather an oversight in the automated system’s design that did not adequately anticipate and manage such a surge.

Facebook BGP Outage in 2021

One of the most talked-about outages in recent history was the infamous Facebook BGP outage in 2021. A configuration change in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) resulted in a cascading failure that effectively erased Facebook from the internet for several hours. The complete disconnection resulted in a secondary issue where the DNS servers were unreachable, meaning Facebook’s servers could not be found. Following the outage, Facebook initiated an extensive review process to strengthen its systems’ resilience and minimize the reoccurrence of such events.

These incidents underscore that human errors in Kubernetes environments can lead to significant disruptions—impacting businesses, users, and reputations. The key takeaway here is a clear need for robust systems and practices that can anticipate, identify, and mitigate the risks posed by human error, which is where solutions like Komodor come into play. 

As we move forward, we’ll explore the root causes of human errors and how innovative solutions can help address them.

The Leading Causes of Human Errors

Given the significant disruptions that can result from human error, understanding the causes behind them is critical to prevention.

Lack of Knowledge

At its core, Kubernetes is a complex beast. It has a steep learning curve and demands a solid understanding of its inner workings to manage it effectively. Moreover, given its relatively recent entry into the world of tech, professionals with extensive Kubernetes experience are still rare. This knowledge gap can lead to misunderstandings or misconfigurations that result in outages or security incidents.

Lack of Testing

In a rush to deploy and update applications rapidly, adequate testing can sometimes fall by the wayside. This can be particularly problematic in a Kubernetes environment where modifications can have far-reaching impacts due to the interconnected nature of the services. Without comprehensive testing, an apparently minor change can lead to significant issues, resulting in outages or performance degradation.

Inadequate Procedures

Even with extensive knowledge and rigorous testing, the absence of robust procedures can still lead to mistakes. For instance, manual modifications to a Kubernetes environment can introduce inconsistencies or errors that are hard to track and resolve. Similarly, inadequate procedures for managing changes or responding to incidents can also contribute to errors and their consequences.

Understanding the causes of human errors in Kubernetes clusters is the first step toward preventing them. Organizations can then focus on training, robust testing practices, and procedural improvements to mitigate these risks. Furthermore, embracing solutions that help automate and manage the complexity of Kubernetes, such as Komodor, can go a long way toward reducing the likelihood of mistakes being made. 

In the following sections, we will discuss how the challenge of associating an outage with a change can prolong the resolution process and how Komodor can help overcome this concern.

War Room: Why Is It Taking So Long to Fix?

In the heat of an outage, every minute counts. Time spent identifying and resolving an issue directly translates into service downtime, potential revenue loss, and damage to reputation. A significant challenge that teams often face during these high-pressure situations is pinpointing the cause of the problem—and in many cases, this boils down to correlating the outage to a specific change.

Correlating an outage to a change is difficult due to the complex, dynamic nature of Kubernetes environments. An application deployed on Kubernetes usually involves numerous interconnected services, with multiple updates and modifications occurring frequently. When something goes wrong, teams have to filter through a sea of data across various services and layers of infrastructure to figure out what change might have triggered the problem.

Moreover, the impact of a single modification can often be far-reaching due to the interconnected nature of services within a Kubernetes cluster. A change in one service can cause failures in dependent services, resulting in a ripple effect that can amplify the issue and make it even harder to track down the root cause.

This daunting task often requires a “war room” scenario, where different teams (DevOps, SREs, developers) huddle together to make sense of the problem and its solution. This not only consumes man-hours but also pulls resources away from regular work, causing further inefficiencies.

The time it takes to correlate an outage to a change and the effort required to bring it under control demonstrates the critical need for tools to aid in this process. This is where solutions like Komodor, which we’ll explore in the next section, can provide invaluable assistance, simplifying the correlation process and accelerating the time to resolution.

Automating Issue Correlation with Komodor

In an environment as dynamic and complex as Kubernetes, the key to quick and effective incident response lies in the ability to accurately correlate issues with their root causes. This is where Komodor steps in.

Komodor is the only unified, dev-first Kubernetes platform, designed to enable Kubernetes across on-prem and cloud-native environments through a single pane of glass. Komodor’s platform empowers developers to confidently operate and troubleshoot their k8s applications while allowing infrastructure teams to maintain control and optimize costs. 

With immediate visualizations, automated playbooks, and actionable insights, Komodor seamlessly integrates with your existing stack and delivers the right data, with the right context, to the right user. 

The real magic of Komodor lies in its ability to automatically correlate issues with recent changes. When an incident occurs, Komodor traces it back to any modifications in the same service or an upstream service that might have caused the issue. Presenting this data in an easy-to-understand, visual format helps teams quickly pinpoint the root cause, significantly reducing the mean time to resolution (MTTR).

Komodor also provides contextual information about the potential impact of each modification. For instance, it can highlight a deployment that may cause a service to behave unexpectedly due to the use of an untested library. With this level of insight, teams can make more informed decisions, reduce guesswork, and accelerate their response times.

The benefits of Komodor don’t end at issue resolution. It’s also a powerful tool for proactive incident prevention. By offering visibility into the changes made across the cluster, teams can identify and rectify potentially problematic changes before they result in outages.

Komodor’s approach to Kubernetes incident management provides a significant shift in how teams handle human-error-induced issues that plague Kubernetes environments. Automating the correlation of issues with modifications, not only reduces the time and effort required to resolve incidents but also empowers teams to prevent incidents in the first place. 

Conclusion

As Kubernetes continues to gain momentum, the risks posed by human error are of growing concern. A lack of understanding of Kubernetes, inadequate testing, and procedural shortcomings have been identified as the primary causes of these errors. More so, the challenge of associating an outage with a specific change can often prolong the resolution process, further compounding the effects of an outage.

As a Kubernetes-native platform, Komodor presents an innovative fix to this issue. By automating the correlation of issues with modifications, Komodor drastically simplifies the incident response process. It not only facilitates rapid root cause analysis but also expedites issue resolution, thus minimizing downtime and its associated costs. Furthermore, with its comprehensive visibility into changes made across the cluster, Komodor helps teams preemptively identify and rectify potential issues, playing a crucial role in incident prevention. For a more efficient, resilient, and future-proof Kubernetes experience, get started with Komodor. Learn how it could fit into your Kubernetes strategy to help reduce the likelihood and impact of human error.