Static Pods vs scheduler-placed Pods; what happens when the scheduler is down

Most Pods reach a node through the scheduler: the Pod is created in the API with an empty spec.nodeName, the kube-scheduler picks a node and writes a binding, and that node's kubelet sees the Pod and starts it. Static Pods take a different path: the kubelet reads a manifest from its local staticPodPath directory and starts the Pod itself, then creates a mirror Pod in the API so you can see it.