Challenge, Easy,  on  Kubernetes

Perform In-Place Updates on a Kubernetes Deployment

Omkar Shelke
by  Omkar Shelke

Scenario

You are working with a Kubernetes Deployment running in the prod namespace.

An existing Deployment named nginx-deployment is already running with two containers:

ContainerImage
nginxpublic.ecr.aws/nginx/nginx:stable-alpine
sidecarbusybox:latest

Task

Make the following changes to the nginx-deployment Deployment in the prod namespace:

  1. Update the nginx container image to public.ecr.aws/nginx/nginx:alpine
  2. Update the sidecar container image to busybox:musl
  3. Rename the nginx container to nginx-prod
  4. Rename the sidecar container to sidecar-prod
  5. Change the update strategy to Recreate
  6. Scale the Deployment to 3 replicas

Ensure the Deployment reaches a healthy state after applying all changes.

Hint — Editing a Deployment In-Place

The fastest way to apply all changes at once is to edit the Deployment directly — one edit triggers a single rollout:

kubectl edit deployment nginx-deployment -n prod

Inside the editor, update name, image, strategy.type, and replicas all in one save.

Alternatively, you can update images without editing using kubectl set image. Note that this only updates images — container names, strategy, and replicas still require a direct edit:

kubectl set image deployment/nginx-deployment -n prod \
  nginx=public.ecr.aws/nginx/nginx:alpine \
  sidecar=busybox:musl

Scale replicas separately:

kubectl scale deployment nginx-deployment -n prod --replicas=3

After any change, verify the rollout completes:

kubectl rollout status deployment/nginx-deployment -n prod

Documentation

Test Cases

How to Author Challenges on iximiuz Labs

Instead of providing a subpar online editing experience, iximiuz Labs offers a helper CLI tool called labctl, allowing you to use your favorite text editor (or a full-featured IDE) to write content from the comfort of your local machine.

Install labctl CLI

curl -sf https://labs.iximiuz.com/cli/install.sh | sh

This will download and install the latest version of the labctl CLI. You only need to do this once per workstation.

Authorize labctl

labctl auth login

This will open a browser window asking you to authorize labctl to access your account. You need to do it after a fresh install of labctl and repeat it whenever the auth session expires.

Pull challenge content

labctl content pull challenge Perform-In-Place-Updates-on-a-Kubernetes-Deployment-c866d58a

This will create a local copy of the challenge content in a directory named Perform-In-Place-Updates-on-a-Kubernetes-Deployment-c866d58a. You only need to do this once per challenge.

Stream your changes

labctl content push -fw challenge Perform-In-Place-Updates-on-a-Kubernetes-Deployment-c866d58a

Run this command in a separate terminal to continuously upload your changes to the server while editing the challenge in your favorite text editor or IDE.

You can also use labctl to create, list, and delete your content. Learn more about the available commands: labctl content --help

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