DevOps & CloudIntermediate
Health Check
PronunciationHELTH chek
Definition
A small endpoint, often /health, that tells tools whether the app is running properly.
Where you hear it
Load balancers, Kubernetes, and monitoring tools.
Examples
The load balancer calls
/healthevery 10 seconds.The health check fails, so the server is removed from rotation.
Common mistake
A health check that always returns OK. It should also check important dependencies such as the database.