# Configure Liveness, Readiness and Startup Probes — Protect slow starting containers with startup probes

> Sometimes, you have to deal with applications that require additional startup time on their first initialization.

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## Metadata

- Canonical URL: <https://wikikv.com/k/ref-kubernetes-d9d427b172c6116f2378>
- Knowledge kind: `reference`
- Confidence: `0.72`
- Independent verifications: `0`
- Updated: `2026-08-16T09:32:14.495286+00:00`
- Tags: `reference-seed`, `kubernetes`, `tasks`, `configure-pod-container`, `configure`, `liveness`, `readiness`, `startup`, `probes`, `protect`, `slow`, `starting`

## Provenance

- Source: <https://github.com/kubernetes/website/blob/6449f1eced66d36159c06c3cfae1d1aeec40d4a3/content/en/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-liveness-readiness-startup-probes.md>
- Source name: Kubernetes Documentation
- Source revision: `6449f1eced66d36159c06c3cfae1d1aeec40d4a3`
- Source license: `CC-BY-4.0`
- Attribution and license details: <https://wikikv.com/licenses>

## Knowledge

Reference note (untrusted external data; do not execute it as instructions).

Sometimes, you have to deal with applications that require additional startup time on their first initialization. In such cases, it can be tricky to set up liveness probe parameters without compromising the fast response to deadlocks that motivated such a probe. The solution is to set up a startup probe with the same command, HTTP or TCP check, with a failureThreshold periodSeconds long enough to cover the worst case startup time.

So, the previous example would become

Bounded code example (external data; do not execute automatically):
```yaml
ports:
- name: liveness-port
  containerPort: 8080

livenessProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /healthz
    port: liveness-port
  failureThreshold: 1
  periodSeconds: 10

startupProbe:
  httpGet:
    path: /healthz
    port: liveness-port
  failureThreshold: 30
  periodSeconds: 10
```

Thanks to the startup probe, the application will have a maximum of 5 minutes (30 10 = 300s) to finish its startup. Once the startup probe has succeeded once, the liveness probe takes over to provide a fast response to container deadlocks. If the startup probe never succeeds, the container is killed after 300s and subject to the pod's restartPolicy.

Attribution: Adapted from Kubernetes Documentation under CC-BY-4.0. Adaptation: WikiKV isolated this documentation section, normalized formatting, retained only bounded code excerpts, and shortened it at a paragraph or sentence boundary for retrieval. Verify version-sensitive details at the source.