Add pod liveness check before starting cassandra server.

config/manager/image_config.yaml

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ kind: ImageConfig
 metadata:
   name: image-config
 images:
-  system-logger: "k8ssandra/system-logger:v1.24.0-dev.a8fa96c-20241219"
+  system-logger: "k8ssandra/system-logger:v1.24.0-dev.2736e9a-20250220"
   config-builder: "datastax/cass-config-builder:1.0-ubi8"
   k8ssandra-client: "k8ssandra/k8ssandra-client:v0.6.0"
   # cassandra:

config/manager/kustomization.yaml

@@ -14,4 +14,4 @@ kind: Kustomization
 images:
 - name: controller
   newName: k8ssandra/cass-operator
-  newTag: v1.24.0-dev.a8fa96c-20241219
+  newTag: v1.24.0-dev.2736e9a-20250220

pkg/httphelper/client.go

@@ -328,6 +328,31 @@ func (client *NodeMgmtClient) CallCreateRoleEndpoint(pod *corev1.Pod, username s
 	return nil
 }
 
+func (client *NodeMgmtClient) CallLivenessEndpoint(pod *corev1.Pod) error {
+	client.Log.Info("requesting Cassandra liveness from Node Management API", "pod", pod.Name)
+
+	podHost, podPort, err := BuildPodHostFromPod(pod)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	request := nodeMgmtRequest{
+		endpoint: "/api/v0/probes/liveness",
+		host:     podHost,
+		port:     podPort,
+		method:   http.MethodGet,
+		timeout:  60 * time.Second,
+	}
+
+	res, err := callNodeMgmtEndpoint(client, request, "")
+	client.Log.Info("requesting Cassandra liveness from Node Management API succeeded ", "pod", pod.Name, "response", res)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 // CallDropRoleEndpoint drops an existing role from the cluster
 func (client *NodeMgmtClient) CallDropRoleEndpoint(pod *corev1.Pod, username string) error {
 	client.Log.Info(

pkg/reconciliation/reconcile_racks.go

@@ -2062,6 +2062,17 @@ func (rc *ReconciliationContext) startNode(pod *corev1.Pod, labelSeedBeforeStart
 					"Labeled pod a seed node %s", pod.Name)
 			}
 
+			// Check if pod is live before starting server
+			isAlive, err := rc.waitForPodLiveness(pod)
+			if err != nil {
+				return true, err
+			}
+			if isAlive {
+				if err := rc.startCassandra(endpointData, pod); err != nil {
+					return true, err
+				}
+			}
+
 			if err := rc.startCassandra(endpointData, pod); err != nil {
 				return true, err
 			}
@@ -2071,6 +2082,29 @@ func (rc *ReconciliationContext) startNode(pod *corev1.Pod, labelSeedBeforeStart
 	return false, nil
 }
 
+func (rc *ReconciliationContext) waitForPodLiveness(pod *corev1.Pod) (bool, error) {
+	timeout := time.After(5 * time.Minute)    // Timeout after 5 minutes
+	ticker := time.NewTicker(5 * time.Second) // Retry every 5 seconds
+
+	for {
+		select {
+		case <-timeout:
+			// Timeout reached
+			rc.ReqLogger.Info("Timed out after 15 minutes of retries")
+			return false, nil
+		case <-ticker.C:
+			// Call the Liveness endpoint
+			if err := rc.NodeMgmtClient.CallLivenessEndpoint(pod); err != nil {
+				rc.ReqLogger.Info("Liveness probe failing before starting pod " + pod.Name + " with error " + err.Error())
+				continue
+			}
+			// If no error, return success
+			rc.ReqLogger.Info("Liveness probe succeeded for pod " + pod.Name)
+			return true, nil
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 func (rc *ReconciliationContext) countReadyAndStarted() (int, int) {
 	ready := 0
 	started := 0

tests/kustomize/kustomization.yaml

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # This is the default kustomize template for tests.
-namespace: kustomize
+namespace: test-webhook-validation
 
 apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
 kind: Kustomization