LastProbeTime

LastProbeTime is a timestamp field in the Kubernetes API used within PodCondition to record the most recent time a probe was performed for a pod condition. It is part of the core/v1 PodCondition structure and is typically represented as a metav1.Time value. The field is optional and may be empty if no probe has been performed for the condition.

It is distinct from the related LastTransitionTime field, which records when the condition last changed its status. LastProbeTime indicates the recency of the probing action itself, not the history of status changes. The PodCondition types that commonly use this field include Ready, Initialized, and ContainersReady, reflecting the readiness and initialization state of a pod and its containers.

Probing is carried out by liveness and readiness probes defined in a pod's container spec. Each probe execution may update the corresponding PodCondition, and therefore update LastProbeTime to the time of the probe. If a probe has not yet been executed for a condition, LastProbeTime may be unset.

Why it matters: LastProbeTime helps operators and tooling assess how fresh the last health or readiness check is, aiding debugging and alerting. It is exposed in PodStatus via status conditions and can be observed through the Kubernetes API, kubectl describe, and related tooling.