Troubleshooting

Work from the cluster outward.

The pod does not start

1. Render the chart with the same values used for installation.
2. Check the operator Deployment, ServiceAccount, Secrets, and image.
3. Read pod events before changing permissions.

The pod runs but Alien shows no connection

Check outbound DNS, HTTPS, and the installation’s registration value. The dashboard considers a connection current only when it receives a recent heartbeat.

Do not rotate every value immediately: first distinguish a missing Secret from a rejected token or blocked network path.

An operation fails

Trace its dependencies in order:

operation selected in Alien
          ↓
present in the generated operator image
          ↓
allowed by Kubernetes or cloud identity
          ↓
target reachable over the network
          ↓
target accepts the credential and request

Fix the first failing step. Do not grant broad cluster access as a shortcut.

Upgrades

Generate the new template, compare its image and permissions with the installed version, and deploy it to a test installation first. Repeat the connection and read-only diagnostic checks before rolling it out through your normal Helm release process.