What does "does not have minimum availability" in k8s mean?

The error message "does not have minimum availability" in Kubernetes means that the number of pods running for a particular deployment or StatefulSet is less than the minimum number specified. It can happen for some reasons, including:

• Insufficient resources: The cluster may need more resources to run the desired number of pods. It can happen if the pods request a lot of CPU or memory, or the cluster is already running at capacity.

• Pods are failing to start: The pods may fail to start for various reasons, such as image pull errors, container startup errors, or network errors.

• Pods are being evicted: Pods may be evicted from nodes due to resource constraints or other reasons.

Troubleshooting the error

To troubleshoot this error, you can use the following commands:

Pod listing

The command shown above will list all of the pods in the cluster. It verifies the current number of running pods for the deployment or StatefulSet. Make sure it matches the desired minimum number of replicas. You can use the -n flag to filter the results by namespace. Here's how you can do it:

Replace my-namespace with the actual namespace name you want to filter by.

Describe pod

Replace <pod-name> with the actual name of the pod to get its detailed description. You can use this command to see if the pod fails to start or is being evicted.

Node listing

The output will show whether each node is in a ready state or if it has any issues or conditions affecting its availability. You can use the -o wide flag to see more detailed information about each node, such as CPU and memory usage. Here's how you can do it:

View pod logs

Replace <pod-name> with the actual name of the pod. The command will display the logs generated by the containers running inside the pod. By examining the logs, you can identify any error messages, exceptions, or other relevant information that might indicate the cause of the availability issue.