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Viewing pods

As an administrator, you can view cluster pods, check their health, and evaluate the overall health of the cluster. You can also view a list of pods associated with a specific project or view usage statistics about pods. Regularly viewing pods can help you detect problems early, track resource usage, and ensure cluster stability.

Viewing pods in a project​

You can display pod usage statistics, such as CPU, memory, and storage consumption, to monitor container runtime environments and ensure efficient resource use.

Procedure

  1. Change to the project by entering the following command:

    $ oc project <project_name>

  2. Obtain a list of pods by entering the following command:

    $ oc get pods
    Example output
    NAME                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    console-698d866b78-bnshf   1/1     Running   2          165m
    console-698d866b78-m87pm   1/1     Running   2          165m

  3. Optional: Add the -o wide flags to view the pod IP address and the node where the pod is located. For example:

    $ oc get pods -o wide
    Example output
    NAME                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE    IP            NODE                           NOMINATED NODE
    console-698d866b78-bnshf   1/1     Running   2          166m   10.128.0.24   ip-10-0-152-71.ec2.internal    <none>
    console-698d866b78-m87pm   1/1     Running   2          166m   10.129.0.23   ip-10-0-173-237.ec2.internal   <none>

Describing a pod​

To troubleshoot pod issues and view detailed information about a pod in OpenShift Container Platform, you can describe a pod using the oc describe pod command. The Events section in the output provides detailed information about the pod and the containers inside of it.

Procedure

  • Describe a pod by running the following command:

    $ oc describe pod -n <namespace> busybox-1
    Example output
    Name:             busybox-1
    Namespace:        busy
    Priority:         0
    Service Account:  default
    Node:             worker-3/192.168.0.0
    Start Time:       Mon, 27 Nov 2023 14:41:25 -0500
    Labels:           app=busybox
                      pod-template-hash=<hash>
    Annotations:      k8s.ovn.org/pod-networks:
    …
    Events:
      Type    Reason   Age                   From     Message
      ----    ------   ----                  ----     -------
      Normal  Pulled   41m (x170 over 7d1h)  kubelet  Container image "quay.io/quay/busybox:latest" already present on machine
      Normal  Created  41m (x170 over 7d1h)  kubelet  Created container busybox
      Normal  Started  41m (x170 over 7d1h)  kubelet  Started container busybox

Viewing pod usage statistics​

You can display usage statistics about pods, including CPU, memory, and storage consumption. By monitoring pod usage levels you can help ensure efficient resource use.

Prerequisites

  • You must have cluster-reader permission to view the usage statistics.
  • Metrics must be installed to view the usage statistics.

Procedure

  1. View the usage statistics by entering the following command:

    $ oc adm top pods -n <namespace>
    Example output
    NAME                         CPU(cores)   MEMORY(bytes)
    console-7f58c69899-q8c8k     0m           22Mi
    console-7f58c69899-xhbgg     0m           25Mi
    downloads-594fcccf94-bcxk8   3m           18Mi
    downloads-594fcccf94-kv4p6   2m           15Mi

  2. Optional: Add the --selector='' label to view usage statistics for pods with labels. Note that you must choose the label query to filter on, such as =, ==, or !=. For example:

    $ oc adm top pod --selector='<pod_name>'

Viewing resource logs​

You can view logs for resources in the OpenShift CLI (oc) or web console. By viewing logs for resources, you can troubleshoot issues and monitor resource behavior.

Logs display from the end (or tail) by default.

Viewing resource logs by using the web console​

You can view resource logs by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console. By viewing logs for resources, you can troubleshoot issues and monitor resource behavior.

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform console, navigate to Workloads → Pods or navigate to the pod through the resource you want to investigate.

    note

    Some resources, such as builds, do not have pods to query directly. In such instances, you can locate the Logs link on the Details page for the resource.

  2. Select a project from the drop-down menu.

  3. Click the name of the pod you want to investigate.

  4. Click Logs.

Viewing resource logs by using the CLI​

You can view resource logs by using the command-line interface (CLI). By viewing logs for resources, you can troubleshoot issues and monitor resource behavior.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the OpenShift CLI (oc).

Procedure

  • View the log for a specific pod by entering the following command:

    $ oc logs -f <pod_name> -c <container_name>

    where:

    -f
    Optional: Specifies that the output follows what is being written into the logs.
    <pod_name>
    Specifies the name of the pod.
    <container_name>
    Optional: Specifies the name of a container. When a pod has more than one container, you must specify the container name.

    For example:

    $ oc logs -f ruby-57f7f4855b-znl92 -c ruby

  • View the log for a specific resource by entering the following command:

    $ oc logs <object_type>/<resource_name>

    For example:

    $ oc logs deployment/ruby

Additional resources