Escalation Path Labs

FIELD MANUAL 001 // HELP DESK → INFRASTRUCTURE

Get out of the queue.
Fix the stuff behind it.

Hands-on break/fix material for help desk, NOC, desktop support, and junior sysadmin people who are tired of being told to “learn cloud” and would rather troubleshoot something real.

Start with 3 free labs Read the roadmap
Format: break / inspect / explain / fix Account: none Video course: absolutely not 
$ kubectl get pods -n breakfix-01
NAME                   READY   STATUS    RESTARTS
api-65c877c9bd-7qgnm   1/1     Running   0

$ kubectl get endpointslice -n breakfix-01 -l kubernetes.io/service-name=api-svc
NAME              ADDRESSTYPE   PORTS   ENDPOINTS
api-svc-7m2zt     IPv4          80      <none>

$ kubectl get pods -n breakfix-01 --show-labels
api-65c...   Running   app=api

$ kubectl describe svc api-svc -n breakfix-01
Selector: app=backend

> theory: the Service selects zero pods
> status: investigate, then fix
Broken on purpose

FREE SAMPLER // NO SIGNUP

Three things are broken.
You get to find out why.

These are complete labs, not teaser screenshots. You get the bad config, hints, the full solution, and cleanup files. If they are useless, you have spent zero dollars and learned something important about our business model.

LAB 01 · EASY · 5–10 MIN

Service has no endpoints

Healthy pods, dead Service. Diagnose the selector mismatch before blaming DNS.

 LAB 02 · EASY · 5–10 MIN

Pending forever

A scheduler refusal hidden behind a perfectly healthy node. Read the event before guessing.

 LAB 03 · MEDIUM · 10–15 MIN

PVC never binds

Enough storage exists. It is still the wrong storage. Trace what the claim actually requires.

THE ESCALATION PATH

Coming from support?

You probably do not need to start over. The useful path is Linux, networking, scripting, containers, one cloud, IaC, then orchestration — with troubleshooting reps the whole way.

Read Help Desk → Cloud Infrastructure →

Already know the basics?

Good. Skip the motivational speech and open the broken systems. If the free labs are too easy, that tells you more than a certificate badge does.

Open the free labs →
less talkmore kubectlfailures includedproduction not required

FIELD MANUAL 001 // FULL PACK

Kubernetes Break/Fix Labs

10 labs · $10 · one-time

The free three plus seven more scenarios covering NetworkPolicy, probes, ConfigMaps, RBAC, CronJobs, ResourceQuota, and startup/readiness/liveness interactions.

  • Broken manifests you diagnose and repair yourself
  • Detailed solutions explaining what failed and why
  • Cleanup scripts and reusable lab files
  • No recurring subscription and no account to maintain
Get all 10 labs — $10 Do the free ones first 
INCIDENT: BF-007
STATE: INTENTIONALLY BROKEN

Symptoms:
  pod: Running
  readiness: 0/1
  service: reachable
  user traffic: dead

Known facts:
  - container started
  - process exists
  - probe disagrees

Your job:
  1. inspect
  2. form a theory
  3. prove it
  4. fix the smallest thing
Break / Fix / Learn

WHY THIS EXISTS

Learn troubleshooting,
not incantations.

Cloud training has no shortage of videos telling you where to click. That is useful right up until something breaks. Escalation Path Labs is built around deliberately broken systems, observable symptoms, and the process of figuring out what actually happened.

The material is for working IT people who already know how to follow a ticket, use a terminal, and search an error message, but want the judgment required to own more of the stack.