What is Ephemeral Container?
Ephemeral containers are temporary containers that run during the lifecycle of a pod in Kubernetes, but do not persist data and disappear when the pod is removed. They provide secure, isolated environments for tasks that only need short-term scratch space like batch jobs or tests.
Unlike regular app containers that are long-running within pods, ephemeral containers have the following key characteristics:
- They are temporary and tied to the lifecycle of a pod
- Any data inside them is not persisted across pod restarts
- Multiple ephemeral containers can run alongside regular app containers within a pod
- They facilitate compartmentalization for specific tasks that require temporary space
- Use cases include adding debug utilities and troubleshooting tools, running ad-hoc experiments, applying database schema changes, running tests, etc.
Overall ephemeral containers enable safe and controlled execution of tasks that require temporary environments without disturbing regular app containers within a pod. Their short-lived nature frees you from worrying about data persistence or leaks across pod restarts.
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