Flapping Network Connections Due to Misconfigured Network Policies

Network connections between pods were intermittently dropping due to misconfigured network policies, causing application instability.

Find this helpful?

What Happened

Network policies were incorrectly configured, leading to intermittent drops in network connectivity between pods, especially under load.

Diagnosis Steps

1Used kubectl describe networkpolicy to inspect network policies and found overly restrictive ingress rules.
2Verified pod-to-pod communication using kubectl exec and confirmed that traffic was being blocked intermittently.

Root Cause

Misconfigured network policies that were too restrictive, blocking legitimate traffic between pods.

Fix/Workaround

• Updated the network policies to allow necessary pod-to-pod communication.
• Tested connectivity to ensure stability after the update.

Lessons Learned

Ensure that network policies are tested thoroughly before being enforced, especially in production.

How to Avoid

1Use a staged approach for deploying network policies, first applying them to non-critical pods.
2Implement automated tests to validate network policy configurations.