How to Delete All Evicted Pods in Kubernetes

Managing pods in Kubernetes is a crucial aspect of maintaining a healthy and efficient cluster. Occasionally, pods may get evicted due to resource constraints or other issues. When these evicted pods accumulate, they can impact the overall performance of your Kubernetes environment. In this guide, we will walk you through the steps to delete all evicted pods in Kubernetes, ensuring smooth operation and optimal resource utilization.

1. Checking Evicted Pods
2. Deleting All Evicted Pods

Commands:

Before we begin, make sure you have the kubectl command-line tool installed and configured to interact with your Kubernetes cluster.

1. Checking Evicted Pods:

   To identify evicted pods, use the following command:

   kubectl get pods --all-namespaces | grep Evicted
   

   This command will display a list of pods in all namespaces that have been evicted.

   Example output:

   default       pod-1            0/1       Evicted
   namespace-1   pod-2            0/1       Evicted
   

2. Deleting All Evicted Pods:

   Now that you have identified the evicted pods, you can delete them using the following steps:

   a. Delete all evicted pods in the default namespace:

   kubectl delete pods --all --namespace=default --field-selector=status.phase==Failed
   

   b. Delete evicted pods in all namespaces:

   kubectl delete pods --all --field-selector=status.phase==Failed
   

   This command deletes all pods in all namespaces with a status phase of "Failed," which includes evicted pods.

   Note: Ensure that deleting evicted pods is the right course of action for your specific use case. Evicted pods may contain valuable information for troubleshooting, so exercise caution before permanently removing them.

More Examples:

• Deleting evicted pods created by a specific deployment:

  kubectl delete pods --all --selector=app=my-deployment
  

  Replace my-deployment with the name of your deployment.

• Deleting evicted pods using a YAML file:

  Create a YAML file named delete-evicted-pods.yaml with the following content:

  apiVersion: v1
  kind: Pod
  metadata:
    name: evicted-pod
  spec:
    restartPolicy: Never
  

  Apply the deletion using:

  kubectl apply -f delete-evicted-pods.yaml
  

  This example creates a pod that will be immediately evicted upon creation.