diff --git a/container-images/gerrit-base/Dockerfile b/container-images/gerrit-base/Dockerfile
index 59766c6..de4c378 100644
--- a/container-images/gerrit-base/Dockerfile
+++ b/container-images/gerrit-base/Dockerfile
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@
 
 RUN mkdir -p /var/gerrit/bin && \
     mkdir -p /var/gerrit/etc && \
+    mkdir -p /var/gerrit/plugins && \
+    mkdir -p /var/plugins && \
     mkdir -p /var/war
 
 # Download Gerrit release
@@ -15,10 +17,16 @@
 RUN curl -k -o /var/war/gerrit.war ${GERRIT_WAR_URL} && \
     ln -s /var/war/gerrit.war /var/gerrit/bin/gerrit.war
 
+# Download healthcheck plugin
+RUN curl -k -o /var/plugins/healthcheck.jar \
+        https://gerrit-ci.gerritforge.com/job/plugin-healthcheck-bazel-stable-3.1/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/bazel-bin/plugins/healthcheck/healthcheck.jar && \
+    ln -s /var/plugins/healthcheck.jar /var/gerrit/plugins/healthcheck.jar
+
 # Allow incoming traffic
 EXPOSE 29418 8080
 
 RUN chown -R gerrit:users /var/gerrit && \
+    chown -R gerrit:users /var/plugins && \
     chown -R gerrit:users /var/war
 USER gerrit
 
diff --git a/container-images/gerrit-init/tools/download_plugins.py b/container-images/gerrit-init/tools/download_plugins.py
index 3615b93..e9fcc6c 100755
--- a/container-images/gerrit-init/tools/download_plugins.py
+++ b/container-images/gerrit-init/tools/download_plugins.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 import argparse
 import hashlib
 import os
+import shutil
 import time
 
 from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
@@ -40,6 +41,8 @@
         self.site = site
         self.config = config
 
+        self.required_plugins = self._get_required_plugins()
+
         self.plugin_dir = os.path.join(site, "plugins")
         self.plugins_changed = False
 
@@ -54,6 +57,31 @@
 
         return list()
 
+    def _get_required_plugins(self):
+        required = [
+            os.path.splitext(f)[0]
+            for f in os.listdir("/var/plugins")
+            if f.endswith(".jar")
+        ]
+        return list(
+            filter(
+                lambda x: x not in self.config.get_all_configured_plugins(), required
+            )
+        )
+
+    def _install_plugins_from_container(self):
+        source_dir = "/var/plugins"
+        for plugin in self.required_plugins:
+            source_file = os.path.join(source_dir, plugin + ".jar")
+            target_file = os.path.join(self.plugin_dir, plugin + ".jar")
+            if os.path.exists(target_file) and self._get_file_sha(
+                source_file
+            ) == self._get_file_sha(target_file):
+                continue
+
+            shutil.copyfile(source_file, target_file)
+            self.plugins_changed = True
+
     @staticmethod
     def _get_file_sha(file):
         file_hash = hashlib.sha1()
@@ -69,8 +97,8 @@
         return file_hash.hexdigest()
 
     def _remove_unwanted_plugins(self):
-        wanted_plugins = [plugin["name"] for plugin in self.config.downloaded_plugins]
-        wanted_plugins.extend(self.config.packaged_plugins)
+        wanted_plugins = list(self.config.get_all_configured_plugins())
+        wanted_plugins.extend(self.required_plugins)
         for plugin in self._get_installed_plugins():
             if os.path.splitext(plugin)[0] not in wanted_plugins:
                 os.remove(os.path.join(self.plugin_dir, plugin))
@@ -79,6 +107,7 @@
     def execute(self):
         self._create_plugins_dir()
         self._remove_unwanted_plugins()
+        self._install_plugins_from_container()
 
         for plugin in self.config.downloaded_plugins:
             self._install_plugin(plugin)
diff --git a/container-images/gerrit-init/tools/init_config.py b/container-images/gerrit-init/tools/init_config.py
index 266fdde..f20c71b 100644
--- a/container-images/gerrit-init/tools/init_config.py
+++ b/container-images/gerrit-init/tools/init_config.py
@@ -44,3 +44,8 @@
             self.plugin_cache_dir = config["pluginCacheDir"]
 
         return self
+
+    def get_all_configured_plugins(self):
+        plugins = set(self.packaged_plugins)
+        plugins.update([p["name"] for p in self.downloaded_plugins])
+        return plugins
diff --git a/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/README.md b/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/README.md
index c6939b2..cf25ec4 100644
--- a/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/README.md
+++ b/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/README.md
@@ -261,6 +261,8 @@
 | `gerritReplica.replicas`                      | Number of pod replicas to deploy                                                                    | `1`                                                                             |
 | `gerritReplica.maxSurge`                      | Max. percentage or number of pods allowed to be scheduled above the desired number                  | `25%`                                                                           |
 | `gerritReplica.maxUnavailable`                | Max. percentage or number of pods allowed to be unavailable at a time                               | `100%`                                                                          |
+| `gerritReplica.livenessProbe`                 | Configuration of the liveness probe timings                                                         | `{initialDelaySeconds: 60, periodSeconds: 5}`                                   |
+| `gerritReplica.readinessProbe`                | Configuration of the readiness probe timings                                                        | `{initialDelaySeconds: 10, periodSeconds: 10}`                                  |
 | `gerritReplica.resources`                     | Configure the amount of resources the pod requests/is allowed                                       | `requests.cpu: 1`                                                               |
 |                                               |                                                                                                     | `requests.memory: 5Gi`                                                          |
 |                                               |                                                                                                     | `limits.cpu: 1`                                                                 |
@@ -342,6 +344,16 @@
     memory resource limit set for the container (e.g. `-Xmx4g`). In your calculation
     allow memory for other components running in the container.
 
+To enable liveness- and readiness probes, the healthcheck plugin will be installed
+by default. Note, that by configuring to use a packaged or downloaded version of
+the healthcheck plugin, the configured version will take precedence over the default
+version. The plugin is by default configured to disable the `querychanges` and
+`auth` healthchecks, since the Gerrit replica does not index changes and a new
+Gerrit server will not yet necessarily have an user to validate authentication.
+
+The default configuration can be overwritten by adding the `healthcheck.config`
+file as a key-value pair to `gerritReplica.etc.config` as for every other configuration.
+
 ## Upgrading the Chart
 
 To upgrade an existing installation of the gerrit-replica chart, e.g. to install
diff --git a/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/templates/gerrit-replica.configmap.yaml b/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/templates/gerrit-replica.configmap.yaml
index 5e98f01..10962c1 100644
--- a/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/templates/gerrit-replica.configmap.yaml
+++ b/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/templates/gerrit-replica.configmap.yaml
@@ -12,6 +12,15 @@
   {{ $key }}:
 {{ toYaml $value | indent 4 }}
   {{- end }}
+  {{- if not (hasKey .Values.gerritReplica.etc.config "healthcheck.config") }}
+  healthcheck.config: |-
+    [healthcheck "auth"]
+      # On new instances there may be no users to use for healthchecks
+      enabled = false
+    [healthcheck "querychanges"]
+      # On new instances there won't be any changes to query
+      enabled = false
+  {{- end }}
 ---
 apiVersion: v1
 kind: ConfigMap
diff --git a/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/templates/gerrit-replica.deployment.yaml b/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/templates/gerrit-replica.deployment.yaml
index 6aff31d..4e208bf 100644
--- a/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/templates/gerrit-replica.deployment.yaml
+++ b/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/templates/gerrit-replica.deployment.yaml
@@ -126,9 +126,11 @@
         image: {{ template "registry" . }}{{ .Values.gerritReplica.images.gerritReplica }}:{{ .Values.images.version }}
         imagePullPolicy: {{ .Values.images.imagePullPolicy }}
         ports:
-        - containerPort: 8080
+        - name: http
+          containerPort: 8080
         {{ if .Values.gerritReplica.service.ssh -}}
-        - containerPort: 29418
+        - name: ssh
+          containerPort: 29418
         {{- end }}
         volumeMounts:
         - name: gerrit-site
@@ -148,6 +150,16 @@
           mountPath: "/var/mnt/etc/config"
         - name: gerrit-replica-secure-config
           mountPath: "/var/mnt/etc/secret"
+        livenessProbe:
+          httpGet:
+            path: /config/server/healthcheck~status
+            port: http
+{{ toYaml .Values.gerritReplica.livenessProbe | indent 10 }}
+        readinessProbe:
+          httpGet:
+            path: /config/server/healthcheck~status
+            port: http
+{{ toYaml .Values.gerritReplica.readinessProbe | indent 10 }}
         resources:
 {{ toYaml .Values.gerritReplica.resources | indent 10 }}
       {{ if .Values.promtailSidecar.enabled -}}
diff --git a/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/values.yaml b/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/values.yaml
index be5094d..879a894 100644
--- a/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/values.yaml
+++ b/helm-charts/gerrit-replica/values.yaml
@@ -204,6 +204,14 @@
   # work.
   maxUnavailable: 100%
 
+  livenessProbe:
+    initialDelaySeconds: 60
+    periodSeconds: 5
+
+  readinessProbe:
+    initialDelaySeconds: 10
+    periodSeconds: 10
+
   # The memory limit has to be higher than the configures heap-size for Java!
   resources:
     requests:
diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index c429b33..ed8c041 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -357,3 +357,8 @@
     if request.config.getoption("--push"):
         docker_push("gerrit-init")
     return gerrit_init_image
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
+def required_plugins(request):
+    return ["healthcheck"]
diff --git a/tests/container-images/gerrit-base/test_container_structure_gerrit_base.py b/tests/container-images/gerrit-base/test_container_structure_gerrit_base.py
index c20144e..52a2f35 100755
--- a/tests/container-images/gerrit-base/test_container_structure_gerrit_base.py
+++ b/tests/container-images/gerrit-base/test_container_structure_gerrit_base.py
@@ -79,6 +79,14 @@
 
 @pytest.mark.docker
 @pytest.mark.structure
+def test_gerrit_base_contains_required_plugins(container_run, required_plugins):
+    for plugin in required_plugins:
+        exit_code, _ = container_run.exec_run("test -f /var/plugins/%s.jar" % plugin)
+        assert exit_code == 0
+
+
+@pytest.mark.docker
+@pytest.mark.structure
 def test_gerrit_base_site_permissions(container_run):
     exit_code, _ = container_run.exec_run("test -O /var/gerrit")
     assert exit_code == 0
diff --git a/tests/container-images/gerrit-init/test_container_integration_gerrit_init.py b/tests/container-images/gerrit-init/test_container_integration_gerrit_init.py
index 082ffa7..287dac7 100644
--- a/tests/container-images/gerrit-init/test_container_integration_gerrit_init.py
+++ b/tests/container-images/gerrit-init/test_container_integration_gerrit_init.py
@@ -126,7 +126,12 @@
             yaml.dump({"packagedPlugins": plugins}, f, default_flow_style=False)
 
     def test_gerrit_init_plugins_are_installed(
-        self, container_run_endless, init_config_dir, plugins_to_install, tmp_site_dir
+        self,
+        container_run_endless,
+        init_config_dir,
+        plugins_to_install,
+        tmp_site_dir,
+        required_plugins,
     ):
         self._configure_packaged_plugins(
             os.path.join(init_config_dir, "init.yaml"), plugins_to_install
@@ -143,5 +148,23 @@
             assert os.path.exists(os.path.join(plugins_path, "%s.jar" % plugin))
 
         installed_plugins = os.listdir(plugins_path)
+        expected_plugins = plugins_to_install + required_plugins
         for plugin in installed_plugins:
-            assert os.path.splitext(plugin)[0] in plugins_to_install
+            assert os.path.splitext(plugin)[0] in expected_plugins
+
+    def test_required_plugins_are_installed(
+        self, container_run_endless, init_config_dir, tmp_site_dir, required_plugins
+    ):
+        self._configure_packaged_plugins(
+            os.path.join(init_config_dir, "init.yaml"), ["hooks"]
+        )
+
+        exit_code, _ = container_run_endless.exec_run(
+            "/var/tools/gerrit_init.py -s /var/gerrit -c /var/config/init.yaml"
+        )
+        assert exit_code == 0
+
+        for plugin in required_plugins:
+            assert os.path.exists(
+                os.path.join(tmp_site_dir, "plugins", "%s.jar" % plugin)
+            )