If you set the https_proxy environment variable in your EAP pod and the proxy can't access the API server, the following warning is displayed at the top of the log:

WARNING: Service account unable to test permissions to view pods in kubernetes (HTTP 000). Clustering will be unavailable. Please refer to the documentation for configuration.

The warning message says clustering will not be available, but in reality, it will be, since the kube-ping code doesn't use the https_proxy environment variable.

The startup script should use curl with the --no-proxy flag. Additionally, if curl can't access the API server, the warning message should say "Clustering might not be available" instead of stating this as fact.