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Lesson 3 extension tasks

Deployment patching a pod-destroying surprise

An alternative way of modifying configuration dynamically is via the kubectl patch command. This allows you to target specific fields of the deployment. Consider the ENABLE_POD_DESTROY environment variable in manifest.yml:

    env:
    ...
      - name: ENABLE_POD_DESTROY
        value: "false"

This can be overriden with the one-liner:

kubectl patch deployment kubechaos -p '{"spec":{"template":{"spec":{"containers":[{"name":"app","env":[{"name":"ENABLE_POD_DESTROY","value":"true"}]}]}}}}'

Refresh the web page until you see the "DESTROY POD NOW" surprise (credit to milanmlft @RSECon25), and watch the pods in real-time (kubectl get pods -w) as you press the button.

Can you set the ENABLE_POD_DESTROY variable in the config map?

📚 Further Reading