# istio_agent-probe-keepalives.yaml
apiVersion: release-notes/v2
kind: bug-fix
area: traffic-management
issue:
- 36390

releaseNotes:
- |
  **Improved** istio-agent health probe rewrite to not re-use connections, mirring Kubernetes' probing behavior.

upgradeNotes:
- title: Health Probes will no longer re-use connections
  content: |
    Health probes using the istio-agent [health probe rewrite](https://istio.io/latest/docs/ops/configuration/mesh/app-health-check/) will
    now no longer re-use connections for the probe. This behavior was changed to match probing behavior of Kubernetes',
    and may also improve probe reliability for applications using short idle timeouts.

    As a result, your application may see more connections (but the same number of HTTP requests) from probes.
    For most applications, this will not be noticeably different.

    If you need to revert to the old behavior, the `ENABLE_PROBE_KEEPALIVE_CONNECTION=true` environment variable in the proxy may be set.