--- title: A visual guide on troubleshooting Kubernetes deployments description: A visual, step-by-step guide to debugging Kubernetes deployments by working bottom-up through Pods, Services, and Ingress. Covers how Deployments, Services,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-visual-guide-on-troubleshooting-kubernetes-deployments-iurrjjvrm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A visual guide on troubleshooting Kubernetes deployments | daily.dev og:description: A visual, step-by-step guide to debugging Kubernetes deployments by working bottom-up through Pods, Services, and Ingress. Covers how Deployments, Services,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-visual-guide-on-troubleshooting-kubernetes-deployments-iurrjjvrm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/IurRJJVRm.png og:image:alt: A visual guide on troubleshooting Kubernetes deployments og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A visual guide on troubleshooting Kubernetes deployments **[LearnKube](https://daily.dev/sources/learnkube)** · 16 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A visual, step-by-step guide to debugging Kubernetes deployments by working bottom-up through Pods, Services, and Ingress. Covers how Deployments, Services, and Ingress actually connect (Service selectors matching Pod labels, targetPort matching containerPort, Ingress service.port matching Service port), common Pod errors like ImagePullBackOff and CrashLoopBackOff, how to inspect Service endpoints, and how to isolate Ingress controller issues using kubectl describe, port-forward, and the ingress-nginx kubectl plugin. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why does my Kubernetes pod show ImagePullBackOff status? ImagePullBackOff means Kubernetes cannot retrieve the container image, usually due to an invalid image name (misspelled or nonexistent), a non-existing tag, or a private registry that Kubernetes lacks credentials for. Fix the name or tag, or add registry credentials as a Secret and reference them in the pod spec. _Debugging image pull errors gets easier with troubleshooting references handy on daily.dev._ ### What is the difference between targetPort, containerPort, and port in a Kubernetes Service and Deployment? containerPort is defined on the Pod's container and must match the Service's targetPort so traffic reaches the right container port. The Service's port field can be any number and multiple Services can reuse the same port since each gets its own IP. The Ingress's service.port must then match the Service's port to connect properly. _Keep Kubernetes networking concepts like port matching straight while shipping deployments via daily.dev._ ### How do I check why a Kubernetes Service has no endpoints? Run kubectl describe service and check the Endpoints field; an empty list means either no running Pod matches the Service's selector labels (check namespace and labels) or there's a typo in the selector. If endpoints exist but the app is still unreachable, the targetPort configured on the Service is likely wrong. _Chasing down Service-to-Pod connectivity issues gets faster with practical references on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How to Troubleshoot Common Kubernetes Errors \[2025 Guide\]](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-troubleshoot-common-kubernetes-errors-2025-guide--lnaeoox6s) · Spacelift · 7 upvotes · 0 comments - [Kubernetes for developers: a complete beginner's guide](https://daily.dev/posts/kubernetes-for-developers-a-complete-beginner-s-guide-e5m8idnmp) · Flavio Copes · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Top 10 Kubernetes Deployment Errors: Causes and Fixes \(And Tips\)](https://daily.dev/posts/top-10-kubernetes-deployment-errors-causes-and-fixes-and-tips--wvbvwbiwi) · The New Stack · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#devops](https://daily.dev/tags/devops), [#kubernetes](https://daily.dev/tags/kubernetes), [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-visual-guide-on-troubleshooting-kubernetes-deployments-iurrjjvrm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A visual guide on troubleshooting Kubernetes deployments","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-visual-guide-on-troubleshooting-kubernetes-deployments-iurrjjvrm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-visual-guide-on-troubleshooting-kubernetes-deployments-iurrjjvrm"},"datePublished":"2026-08-31T11:20:04.722Z","dateModified":"2026-08-31T11:20:43.137Z","description":"A visual, step-by-step guide to debugging Kubernetes deployments by working bottom-up through Pods, Services, and Ingress. 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