IL-0162 Linode · 2025-04-01kubernetesnetworking
External access to LKE clusters and the LKE Dashboard failed because of a DNS resolution problem. Linode traced it to an internal dependency of the LKE DNS system: an earlier update to a database made the DNS service hang, and the DNS servers associated with the LKE Dashboard stopped responding. Internal cluster services were not affected.
The cause was identified at 22:29 UTC. Linode restarted the affected DNS services, which restored access, and reported the issue corrected at 23:03 UTC. After monitoring for stability, the incident was marked resolved at 01:09 UTC on 3 April 2025.
On 1 April 2025 users of Linode Kubernetes Engine (LKE) began having trouble connecting to their clusters' control planes, and the LKE Dashboard was affected as well. Services inside the clusters kept working. The first status update was posted at 20:28 UTC; at 21:33 UTC Linode said it was investigating an issue with DNS functionality within LKE.
Root cause ? Dependency failure
The first status update, at 20:28 UTC on 1 April, said Linode was investigating and that users might have difficulty connecting to their cluster control plane. At 21:33 UTC Linode said the issue affected DNS functionality within LKE, and at 22:29 UTC that it had identified the underlying cause.
A change to a database that the DNS service depends on can make the DNS service hang, which here cut off external access to the clusters and the LKE Dashboard while services inside the clusters kept working. The DNS service should recover by itself from transient failures of its dependencies, and changes to dependent systems need to be coordinated.
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