Unable to attach or mount volumes

Hi all,
trust this finds you well. Since a few days - I can’t tell for sure when it started - I’m seeing some strange behavior in some of or deployments, where pods get stuck in the INIT state. The effect does only affect one certain namespace, only a few deployments within that namespace, but from affected deployments not all replicas - some run fine, some have the issue.
The affected pods show the following event:
Unable to attach or mount volumes: unmounted volumes=[persistent-storage], unattached volumes=[istiod-ca-cert istio-data istio-envoy istio-token istio-podinfo default-token-f9v2j persistent-storage]: timed out waiting for the condition

I couldn’t find anything meaningful on the Internet. Restarting the pods doesn’t help, neither does restarting or recreating the affected deployments. Even recreating the namespace from scratch does not help. And I have no clue, what has changed since the issue started.

Any hint would be much appreciated

Cluster information:

Kubernetes version:

Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"20", GitVersion:"v1.20.7", GitCommit:"132a687512d7fb058d0f5890f07d4121b3f0a2e2", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2021-05-12T12:40:09Z", GoVersion:"go1.15.12", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}
Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"20+", GitVersion:"v1.20.7-eks-d88609", GitCommit:"d886092805d5cc3a47ed5cf0c43de38ce442dfcb", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2021-07-31T00:29:12Z", GoVersion:"go1.15.12", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}

Cloud being used: AWS EKS
Host OS: Amazon Linux 2 5.4.156-83.273.amzn2.x86_64 docker://20.10.7

Describe-output from failed pod:

Name:           mdms-cleanup-worker-v21.6.0-8556cb6f8d-nhb6f
Namespace:      mdms-microservices
Priority:       0
Node:           ip-100-64-43-90.eu-west-1.compute.internal/100.64.43.90
Start Time:     Wed, 24 Nov 2021 09:30:23 +0100
Labels:         app=mdms-cleanup-worker
                application=mdms
                module=microservices
                pod-template-hash=8556cb6f8d
                security.istio.io/tlsMode=istio
                service.istio.io/canonical-name=mdms-cleanup-worker
                service.istio.io/canonical-revision=v21.6.0
                tier=backend
                version=v21.6.0
Annotations:    kubectl.kubernetes.io/default-container: mdms-cleanup-worker
                kubectl.kubernetes.io/default-logs-container: mdms-cleanup-worker
                kubernetes.io/psp: eks.privileged
                prometheus.io/path: /stats/prometheus
                prometheus.io/port: 15020
                prometheus.io/scrape: true
                sidecar.istio.io/status:
                  {"initContainers":["istio-init"],"containers":["istio-proxy"],"volumes":["istio-envoy","istio-data","istio-podinfo","istio-token","istiod-...
Status:         Pending
IP:
IPs:            <none>
Controlled By:  ReplicaSet/mdms-cleanup-worker-v21.6.0-8556cb6f8d
Init Containers:
  istio-init:
    Container ID:
    Image:         gcr.io/istio-release/proxyv2:1.11.4
    Image ID:
    Port:          <none>
    Host Port:     <none>
    Args:
      istio-iptables
      -p
      15001
      -z
      15006
      -u
      1337
      -m
      REDIRECT
      -i
      *
      -x

      -b
      *
      -d
      15090,15021,15020
    State:          Waiting
      Reason:       PodInitializing
    Ready:          False
    Restart Count:  0
    Limits:
      cpu:     2
      memory:  1Gi
    Requests:
      cpu:        10m
      memory:     40Mi
    Environment:  <none>
    Mounts:
      /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from default-token-f9v2j (ro)
Containers:
  mdms-cleanup-worker:
    Container ID:
    Image:          550038091055.dkr.ecr.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/renewables-uai1007324-mdms-microservices:cleanup-worker_21.12.0
    Image ID:
    Port:           <none>
    Host Port:      <none>
    State:          Waiting
      Reason:       PodInitializing
    Ready:          False
    Restart Count:  0
    Limits:
      cpu:     1
      memory:  1Gi
    Requests:
      cpu:     100m
      memory:  500Mi
    Environment:
      NATS_SERVER_ADDR:            nats://nats.utilities:4222
      CLUSTER_ID:                  ge-mdmswind-production-nats-cluster
      MDMS_DATABASE_GATEWAY_ADDR:  http://mdms-database-gateway.mdms-microservices:8180
      AWS_ACCESSKEY:
      AWS_SECRETKEY:
      AWS_REGION:                  eu-west-1
    Mounts:
      /tmp from persistent-storage (rw)
      /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from default-token-f9v2j (ro)
  istio-proxy:
    Container ID:
    Image:         gcr.io/istio-release/proxyv2:1.11.4
    Image ID:
    Port:          15090/TCP
    Host Port:     0/TCP
    Args:
      proxy
      sidecar
      --domain
      $(POD_NAMESPACE).svc.cluster.local
      --proxyLogLevel=warning
      --proxyComponentLogLevel=misc:error
      --log_output_level=default:info
      --concurrency
      2
    State:          Waiting
      Reason:       PodInitializing
    Ready:          False
    Restart Count:  0
    Limits:
      cpu:     2
      memory:  1Gi
    Requests:
      cpu:      10m
      memory:   40Mi
    Readiness:  http-get http://:15021/healthz/ready delay=1s timeout=3s period=2s #success=1 #failure=30
    Environment:
      JWT_POLICY:                    third-party-jwt
      PILOT_CERT_PROVIDER:           istiod
      CA_ADDR:                       istiod.istio-system.svc:15012
      POD_NAME:                      mdms-cleanup-worker-v21.6.0-8556cb6f8d-nhb6f (v1:metadata.name)
      POD_NAMESPACE:                 mdms-microservices (v1:metadata.namespace)
      INSTANCE_IP:                    (v1:status.podIP)
      SERVICE_ACCOUNT:                (v1:spec.serviceAccountName)
      HOST_IP:                        (v1:status.hostIP)
      PROXY_CONFIG:                  {}

      ISTIO_META_POD_PORTS:          [
                                     ]
      ISTIO_META_APP_CONTAINERS:     mdms-cleanup-worker
      ISTIO_META_CLUSTER_ID:         Kubernetes
      ISTIO_META_INTERCEPTION_MODE:  REDIRECT
      ISTIO_META_WORKLOAD_NAME:      mdms-cleanup-worker-v21.6.0
      ISTIO_META_OWNER:              kubernetes://apis/apps/v1/namespaces/mdms-microservices/deployments/mdms-cleanup-worker-v21.6.0
      ISTIO_META_MESH_ID:            cluster.local
      TRUST_DOMAIN:                  cluster.local
    Mounts:
      /etc/istio/pod from istio-podinfo (rw)
      /etc/istio/proxy from istio-envoy (rw)
      /var/lib/istio/data from istio-data (rw)
      /var/run/secrets/istio from istiod-ca-cert (rw)
      /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from default-token-f9v2j (ro)
      /var/run/secrets/tokens from istio-token (rw)
Conditions:
  Type              Status
  Initialized       False
  Ready             False
  ContainersReady   False
  PodScheduled      True
Volumes:
  istio-envoy:
    Type:       EmptyDir (a temporary directory that shares a pod's lifetime)
    Medium:     Memory
    SizeLimit:  <unset>
  istio-data:
    Type:       EmptyDir (a temporary directory that shares a pod's lifetime)
    Medium:
    SizeLimit:  <unset>
  istio-podinfo:
    Type:  DownwardAPI (a volume populated by information about the pod)
    Items:
      metadata.labels -> labels
      metadata.annotations -> annotations
  istio-token:
    Type:                    Projected (a volume that contains injected data from multiple sources)
    TokenExpirationSeconds:  43200
  istiod-ca-cert:
    Type:      ConfigMap (a volume populated by a ConfigMap)
    Name:      istio-ca-root-cert
    Optional:  false
  persistent-storage:
    Type:       PersistentVolumeClaim (a reference to a PersistentVolumeClaim in the same namespace)
    ClaimName:  mdms-microservice-temp
    ReadOnly:   false
  default-token-f9v2j:
    Type:        Secret (a volume populated by a Secret)
    SecretName:  default-token-f9v2j
    Optional:    false
QoS Class:       Burstable
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
  ----     ------       ----                 ----     -------
  Warning  FailedMount  16m (x6 over 68m)    kubelet  Unable to attach or mount volumes: unmounted volumes=[persistent-storage], unattached volumes=[default-token-f9v2j persistent-storage istiod-ca-cert istio-data istio-envoy istio-token istio-podinfo]: timed out waiting for the condition
  Warning  FailedMount  14m (x2 over 48m)    kubelet  Unable to attach or mount volumes: unmounted volumes=[persistent-storage], unattached volumes=[istio-envoy istio-token istio-podinfo default-token-f9v2j persistent-storage istiod-ca-cert istio-data]: timed out waiting for the condition
  Warning  FailedMount  12m (x4 over 46m)    kubelet  Unable to attach or mount volumes: unmounted volumes=[persistent-storage], unattached volumes=[istio-podinfo default-token-f9v2j persistent-storage istiod-ca-cert istio-data istio-envoy istio-token]: timed out waiting for the condition
  Warning  FailedMount  7m50s (x6 over 73m)  kubelet  Unable to attach or mount volumes: unmounted volumes=[persistent-storage], unattached volumes=[istiod-ca-cert istio-data istio-envoy istio-token istio-podinfo default-token-f9v2j persistent-storage]: timed out waiting for the condition
  Warning  FailedMount  5m32s (x7 over 62m)  kubelet  Unable to attach or mount volumes: unmounted volumes=[persistent-storage], unattached volumes=[istio-data istio-envoy istio-token istio-podinfo default-token-f9v2j persistent-storage istiod-ca-cert]: timed out waiting for the condition
  Warning  FailedMount  3m15s (x6 over 57m)  kubelet  Unable to attach or mount volumes: unmounted volumes=[persistent-storage], unattached volumes=[persistent-storage istiod-ca-cert istio-data istio-envoy istio-token istio-podinfo default-token-f9v2j]: timed out waiting for the condition
  Warning  FailedMount  59s (x2 over 23m)    kubelet  Unable to attach or mount volumes: unmounted volumes=[persistent-storage], unattached volumes=[istio-token istio-podinfo default-token-f9v2j persistent-storage istiod-ca-cert istio-data istio-envoy]: timed out waiting for the condition