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Should You Use Ephemeral Containers In Production Environments Or Not?

Author

Govardhana M K
December 23, 2024

TechOps Examples

Hey — It's Govardhana MK 👋

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IN TODAY'S EDITION

🧠 Use Case

  • Should You Use Ephemeral Containers In Production Environments Or Not?

🚀 Top News

👀 Remote Jobs

📚️ Resources

📢 Reddit Threads

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🧠 USE CASE

Should You Use Ephemeral Containers In Production Environments Or Not?

For someone new, ephemeral containers are a Kubernetes feature introduced in v1.16 (graduated in v1.25), primarily designed to assist with debugging live Pods.

Unlike normal containers, they’re not defined in the Pod spec upfront but are dynamically injected at runtime into an already running Pod.

This ability makes them incredibly powerful for operational tasks like debugging.

Key Features of Ephemeral Containers

  • Short-lived, transient containers.

  • Easily injected into running Pods with kubectl debug.

  • Share the same namespace and network as the main containers.

  • Do not interfere with the Pod's lifecycle.

 

But it also raises questions about their suitability in production environments.

While It is true:

  • They don’t require Pod restarts, they avoid downtime and application interruptions.

  •  Debugging occurs in a dedicated container, protecting the application from accidental side effects.

  • You can tailor ephemeral containers with preloaded tools to suit the troubleshooting needs (e.g., network sniffers, performance profilers).

  • They’re only injected when needed and disappear after the issue is resolved.

Here - The Risks and Caveats of Using Ephemeral Containers

  • No Restart Guarantee - meaning they are not ideal for persistent workflows.

  • Security Concerns - can introduce vulnerabilities by exposing namespaces or sensitive data.

✅ Use Them When:

  • Debugging critical live systems where you need isolation.

  • Running diagnostics without modifying existing application containers.

  • Temporarily inspecting environments or workloads.

🚫 Avoid Them When:

  • Long-term fixes or monitoring tasks are needed.

  • The debugging process risks sensitive production workloads.

  • Your team lacks proper access controls for ephemeral containers.

Hands-On Guide to Ephemeral Containers:
# Launch an Ephemeral Container

kubectl debug <pod-name> -c debug-container --image=busybox --target=<main-container>

# Inspect Logs in the Ephemeral Container:

kubectl logs <pod-name> -c debug-container

# Run Commands in the Ephemeral Container:

kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -c debug-container -- sh

Refer to this guide, Debugging with an Ephemeral Debug Container, to enhance your expertise on this topic.

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