# Can't start pods after a disk pressure problem

**URL:** <https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/cant-start-pods-after-a-disk-pressure-problem/13702>\
**Category:** microk8s\
**Created:** [November 14, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/cant-start-pods-after-a-disk-pressure-problem/13702 "2020-11-14T19:38:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![darrint](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/darrint/32/6247_2.png) [@darrint](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/darrint)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/cant-start-pods-after-a-disk-pressure-problem/13702/1 "2020-11-14T19:38:54Z")

</div>

I have lost the ability to run pods on my microk8s install. After creating the pod I see the event for pulling the image but it never gives any indication of any progress.

I had a problem earlier where I couldn’t start pods due to disk pressure. I cleared some space on the server. I attempted at one point to prune unused images from the registry but I don’t think I got anywhere with that.

I don’t see any obvious errors in microk8s services in the system journal.

To demonstrate I created the following pod:

```
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: ubuntu
  labels:
    app: ubuntu
spec:
  containers:
  - image: ubuntu
    command:
      - "sleep"
      - "604800"
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    name: ubuntu
  restartPolicy: Always

```

Describing the pod after creating it:

```
Name: debug
Namespace: default
Priority: 0
Node: ubunutu-server/10.41.1.95
Start Time: Sat, 14 Nov 2020 19:20:24 +0000
Labels: app=debug
Annotations: cni.projectcalico.org/podIP: 10.1.24.129/32
              cni.projectcalico.org/podIPs: 10.1.24.129/32
Status: Pending
IP:           
IPs: <none>
Containers:
  ubuntu:
    Container ID:  
    Image: ubuntu
    Image ID:      
    Port: <none>
    Host Port: <none>
    Command:
      sleep
      604800
    State: Waiting
      Reason: ContainerCreating
    Ready: False
    Restart Count: 0
    Environment: <none>
    Mounts:
      /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from default-token-hzbq4 (ro)
Conditions:
  Type Status
  Initialized True 
  Ready False 
  ContainersReady False 
  PodScheduled True 
Volumes:
  default-token-hzbq4:
    Type: Secret (a volume populated by a Secret)
    SecretName: default-token-hzbq4
    Optional: false
QoS Class: BestEffort
Node-Selectors: <none>
Tolerations: node.kubernetes.io/not-ready:NoExecute op=Exists for 300s
                node.kubernetes.io/unreachable:NoExecute op=Exists for 300s
Events:
  Type Reason Age From Message
  ---- ------ ---- ---- -------
  Normal Scheduled 8m26s default-scheduler Successfully assigned default/debug to ubunutu-server
  Normal Pulling 8m25s kubelet Pulling image "ubuntu"

```

That “Pulling image” event is the last event I ever get.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kjackal](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/kjackal/32/1750_2.png) [@kjackal](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/kjackal)\
**Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 8:03am UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/cant-start-pods-after-a-disk-pressure-problem/13702/2 "2020-11-17T08:03:58Z")

</div>

It is hard to say what may be happening in the cluster. Could you share the `microk8s inspect` tarball (maybe in a github issue at [1])?

[1] [https://github.com/ubuntu/microk8s/issues](https://github.com/ubuntu/microk8s/issues)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![darrint](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/darrint/32/6247_2.png) [@darrint](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/darrint)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2020, 1:34am UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/cant-start-pods-after-a-disk-pressure-problem/13702/3 "2020-11-19T01:34:38Z")

</div>

The problem cleared up after another restart of microk8s. I stopped investigating after that.

Thank you for the reply.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kevin-david](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discuss.kubernetes.io/kevin-david/32/6845_2.png) [@kevin-david](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/u/kevin-david)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2021, 5:04pm UTC](https://discuss.kubernetes.io/t/cant-start-pods-after-a-disk-pressure-problem/13702/4 "2021-02-02T17:04:15Z")

</div>

I did not have a disk pressure issue but I saw something similar where image pulls just hung on container init. Stop/start of microk8s also fixed my problem. I attached some inspection tarballs to this issue: [Pull after 1h doesn't work · Issue #1113 · ubuntu/microk8s · GitHub](https://github.com/ubuntu/microk8s/issues/1113#issuecomment-771790841)
