Readiness probe failed Kubernetes Origin: Platform & cloud Last updated 13 Oct 2026

Readiness probe failed: HTTP probe failed with statuscode: 503 / connect: connection refused

The container is running, but its readiness check fails, so the pod is marked not ready and removed from Service endpoints.

Exact message you may see Readiness probe failedHTTP probe failed with statuscodeReadiness probe failed: Get
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Seen on: Kubernetes

Meaning

Readiness decides whether traffic is sent to the pod. Failures mean the probe path/port is wrong, the app listens only on 127.0.0.1, it’s still starting, or a dependency check inside /health fails. Pods show 0/1 Running and the Service may have no endpoints.

Common causes

  • Wrong port or path in the probe
  • App bound to localhost instead of 0.0.0.0
  • Startup slower than initialDelaySeconds
  • Health endpoint checks a failing dependency (DB)

⚡ Quick fix

  1. Curl the probe endpoint from inside the pod
  2. Bind the app to 0.0.0.0 and the containerPort
  3. Add a startupProbe or increase initialDelaySeconds

Detailed fix by platform

Kubernetes

  1. bash
    kubectl exec web-0 -- wget -qO- http://localhost:8080/ready
kubectl describe pod web-0 | grep -A3 Readiness

YAML

  1. bash
    readinessProbe:
  httpGet: { path: /ready, port: 8080 }
  initialDelaySeconds: 5
  periodSeconds: 10
  failureThreshold: 3

How to diagnose

  1. Probe — Path, port, scheme
  2. Listen — ss -ltnp inside the pod
  3. Timing — How long does startup take?

🔧 Still not fixed?

Many errors look alike. If the steps above didn’t solve it, one of these is probably what you’re facing:

Where this error sits

Origin: Platform & cloud. Errors that are often confused with or caused by this one (click to open):

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