livinstone.dev / blog
The Blog
Hands-on articles about Kubernetes, Terraform, GitOps, observability, and cloud infrastructure — based on things I've actually built and broken in production.
19 articles published
Writing Kubernetes Runbooks That Actually Get Used During Incidents
Most runbooks are written once, stored somewhere, and never opened again — especially during the incidents they were meant to help with. This article covers how to write Kubernetes runbooks that engineers actually reach for at 2 AM.
FeaturedKubernetes Pod Lifecycle: From Scheduling to Termination
Everything that happens between kubectl apply and a running pod — and between a delete command and a clean shutdown. Understanding the full pod lifecycle is what separates engineers who debug Kubernetes quickly from those who guess.
FeaturedThe Operational Patterns Kubernetes Won't Teach You — But Production Will
Beyond the basics: the operational patterns that only emerge after running Kubernetes in production. Graceful shutdown, pod disruption budgets, anti-affinity rules, namespace strategy, and the kubectl commands that become muscle memory.