diff --git a/kubernetes/client/configuration.py b/kubernetes/client/configuration.py

--- a/kubernetes/client/configuration.py

+++ b/kubernetes/client/configuration.py

@@ -387,6 +387,15 @@

self.socket_options = socket_options

"""Options to pass down to the underlying urllib3 socket

"""

+ self.keep_alive = False

+ """Enable TCP keepalive on the underlying urllib3 sockets.

+

+ Long lived requests such as watches are otherwise dropped

+ silently by an idle proxy or load balancer. When enabled, the

+ client asks the kernel for the same keepalive timings client-go

+ uses. Ignored if ``socket_options`` is set, which takes

+ precedence.

+ """

self.datetime_format = datetime_format

"""datetime format

diff --git a/kubernetes/client/rest.py b/kubernetes/client/rest.py

--- a/kubernetes/client/rest.py

+++ b/kubernetes/client/rest.py

@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@

on_retry_after_error,

retry_after_backoff,

)

+from kubernetes.utils.keepalive import tcp_keepalive_socket_options

from kubernetes.client.exceptions import ApiException, ApiValueError

SUPPORTED_SOCKS_PROXIES = {"socks5", "socks5h", "socks4", "socks4a"}

@@ -160,6 +161,8 @@

if configuration.socket_options is not None:

pool_args['socket_options'] = configuration.socket_options

+ elif getattr(configuration, 'keep_alive', False):

+ pool_args['socket_options'] = tcp_keepalive_socket_options()

if configuration.connection_pool_maxsize is not None:

pool_args['maxsize'] = configuration.connection_pool_maxsize