CKA Workloads and Scheduling Practice Question
Which TWO statements are correct regarding DaemonSets?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse DaemonSets with Deployments or StatefulSets, mistakenly thinking they support scaling via `kubectl scale` or use a replica count, when in fact DaemonSets are node-driven and scale automatically based on node membership.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
DaemonSets are often used for cluster monitoring or logging agents.
DaemonSets are designed to run a copy of a pod on every node (or a subset of nodes based on node selectors), making them ideal for cluster-wide infrastructure services such as monitoring agents (e.g., Prometheus Node Exporter), logging agents (e.g., Fluentd), and network plugins (e.g., Calico). This pattern ensures that each node has the necessary agent running without manual intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
DaemonSets do not support rolling updates.
Why it's wrong here
DaemonSets actually support rolling updates through the updateStrategy field, which can be set to RollingUpdate (the default) or OnDelete. In the RollingUpdate strategy, the controller gradually replaces pods on nodes, honoring maxUnavailable to control how many pods can be down at once. Thus, saying they do not support rolling updates is factually incorrect.
- ✗
DaemonSets can be scaled up and down using kubectl scale.
Why it's wrong here
Scaling a DaemonSet with kubectl scale is meaningless because DaemonSets do not maintain a replica count. The DaemonSet controller creates exactly one pod per matching node, irrespective of any desired replica number. Attempting to scale a DaemonSet does not increase or decrease the pod count; you would instead modify the node selector or use node affinity to control which nodes run the pod.
- ✗
DaemonSets use a replica count to determine how many pods to run.
Why it's wrong here
DaemonSets differ from Deployments or ReplicaSets because they have no replicas field. Instead, the desired state is defined by a node selection mechanism — the DaemonSet controller watches nodes and instantiates one pod on every node that matches the selector. Therefore, the number of pods is determined by the number of matching nodes, not by a replica count.
- ✓
DaemonSets are often used for cluster monitoring or logging agents.
Why this is correct
DaemonSets are the standard workload type for node-level agents because they guarantee coverage on every node. Common use cases include log shippers like Fluentd or Filebeat, which must run locally to forward each node's logs, and monitoring agents such as Prometheus Node Exporter or Datadog, which collect per-node metrics. Running such agents as a DaemonSet ensures they automatically appear on newly added nodes and are removed when nodes are deleted.
- ✓
DaemonSets ensure that all (or some) nodes run a copy of a pod.
Why this is correct
The primary function of a DaemonSet is to ensure that a copy of a pod runs on all nodes that meet a designated criteria, which can be all nodes or a subset chosen via nodeSelector, node affinity, and tolerations. When nodes are added to the cluster, the DaemonSet controller automatically schedules the pod onto them; when nodes are removed, those pods are garbage-collected. This behavior makes DaemonSets ideal for infrastructure services that must be present on every node.
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