How to Diagnose Abnormal Kubernetes Workload Behavior (Step-by-Step)
It's 2:14 AM. CPU usage is normal. Memory looks stable. No pods are in CrashLoopBackOff. Every dashboard is green. And yet API latency has doubled, checkout requests are timing out, and your on-call phone won't stop buzzing. This is the defining trait of abnormal Kubernetes workload behavior: it rarely announces itself through the metrics you already watch. Kubernetes is exceptionally good at reporting whether a pod is running. It is far less good at telling you whether a pod is doing its job correctly.