How to Check the Status of Pods in an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Cluster ?

Kubernetes has become the standard platform for deploying and managing containerized applications. When running workloads in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), one of the most common operational tasks is checking the health and status of application pods.

This guide walks through the process of connecting to an AKS cluster using Azure CLI and Kubernetes CLI (kubectl), and then verifying that application pods are running successfully.

Prerequisites

Before getting started, ensure you have:

Azure CLI installed
Kubernetes CLI (kubectl) installed
Access to the Azure subscription hosting the AKS cluster
Appropriate permissions to access the AKS cluster

Step 1: Log in to Azure

Start by authenticating with Azure using the Azure CLI:

az login

After successful authentication, Azure displays the list of available subscriptions associated with your account.

Example:

[1] xyz-kubility-management
[2] xyz-kubility-prod
[3] xyz-kubility-test
[4] Production-Infrastructure
[5] UAT-Infrastructure

Select the subscription that contains your AKS cluster.

Step 2: Set the Azure Subscription

If multiple subscriptions are available, explicitly set the target subscription:

az account set --subscription <subscription-id>

Example:

az account set --subscription xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxx

This ensures all subsequent Azure CLI commands target the correct environment.

Step 3: Connect to the AKS Cluster

Retrieve the Kubernetes credentials for the AKS cluster:

az aks get-credentials \
--resource-group XYZ-ABC-DEFGHIG-PROD-RG \
--name ABCXYZDEFAKS \
--overwrite-existing

Successful execution returns a message similar to:

Merged "ABCXYZDEFAKS" as current context in C:\Users\UserOne\.kube\config

This command updates your local kubeconfig file and sets the AKS cluster as the current Kubernetes context.

Step 4: Verify Cluster Connectivity

Run the following command:

kubectl get pods

You may see:

No resources found in default namespace.

This is normal if your applications are deployed in a namespace other than the default namespace.

Step 5: Check Pods in the Application Namespace

List pods within the target namespace:

kubectl get pods -n sasefbprod

Understanding the Output

The command output provides several useful indicators:

Column	Description
NAME	Unique pod name generated by Kubernetes
READY	Number of containers running versus expected containers
STATUS	Current pod state (Running, Pending, CrashLoopBackOff, etc.)
RESTARTS	Number of times the container has restarted
AGE	How long the pod has been running

In the example above:

All pods show 1/1 READY, indicating all containers are healthy.
The STATUS is Running for every pod.
The RESTARTS count is 0, which indicates no unexpected container restarts.
Pod ages vary based on deployment timelines.

Useful Troubleshooting Commands

View All Namespaces

kubectl get namespaces

View Pods Across All Namespaces

kubectl get pods --all-namespaces

Describe a Pod

kubectl describe pod <pod-name> -n sasefbprod

View Pod Logs

kubectl logs <pod-name> -n sasefbprod

Check Deployment Status

kubectl get deployments -n sasefbprod

Conclusion

Monitoring pod status is one of the most important day-to-day tasks for Kubernetes administrators and DevOps engineers. By logging into Azure, connecting to the AKS cluster, and using kubectl commands, you can quickly verify application health and identify potential issues before they impact users.

A healthy pod status typically shows: