A cluster administrator needs to perform a manual control plane and worker node version upgrade on a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Standard cluster named `prod-analytics-cluster` located in region `us-central1`. Automatic node upgrades are disabled for this cluster due to customized maintenance windows. What is the correct sequence of operational steps to upgrade the control plane first, verify stability, and then safely upgrade the node pool?
- 1Inspect available GKE control plane versions for the target region using `gcloud container get-server-config --region=us-central1`.
- 2Upgrade the cluster control plane to the target version using `gcloud container clusters upgrade prod-analytics-cluster --master-only --cluster-version=TARGET_VERSION`.
- 3Verify that the control plane upgrade has completed successfully and the cluster status is `RUNNING`.
- 4Upgrade the worker node pool using `gcloud container node-pools upgrade default-pool --cluster=prod-analytics-cluster --cluster-version=TARGET_VERSION`.
- 5Validate worker node status and version uniform updates across the cluster using `kubectl get nodes`.
Answer
The correct operational sequence begins by checking available cluster versions with `gcloud container get-server-config`, upgrading the control plane master using `gcloud container clusters upgrade` with the `--master-only` flag, verifying control plane health, upgrading the node pool using `gcloud container node-pools upgrade`, and finally verifying node readiness using `kubectl get nodes`.
The correct order follows GCP best practices for manual GKE cluster maintenance: first query valid versions (`gcloud container get-server-config`), then upgrade the control plane (`gcloud container clusters upgrade --master-only`), confirm control plane health, upgrade worker node pools (`gcloud container node-pools upgrade`), and verify node health with `kubectl get nodes`.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
GKE Cluster and Node Pool Manual Upgrade Order