kurtosis-tech K8s Debug Pods
Diagnose and fix issues with Kurtosis pods on Kubernetes.
Quick triage
# See all kurtosis-related pods across namespaces
kubectl get pods -A | grep kurtosis
# Check for problem pods (not Running)
kubectl get pods -A | grep kurtosis | grep -v Running
# Get events for a specific pod
kubectl describe pod <POD_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE> | tail -30
Common pod states and fixes
Pending — Unschedulable
The pod can't be scheduled because of node taints, resource pressure, or affinity rules.
# Check node taints
kubectl get nodes -o custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,TAINTS:.spec.taints
# Check node conditions (DiskPressure, MemoryPressure, etc.)
kubectl get nodes -o custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,CONDITIONS:.status.conditions[*].type
Fix: Add tolerations to the kurtosis config at ~/Library/Application Support/kurtosis/kurtosis-config.yml or fix the node condition.
ImagePullBackOff
The image tag doesn't exist on the registry.
# Check which image is failing
kubectl describe pod <POD_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE> | grep -A5 "Image:"
# Verify image exists on Docker Hub
docker manifest inspect <IMAGE>:<TAG>
Fix: Push the correct image tag, or fix the image reference in the code.
CrashLoopBackOff
The container starts but crashes immediately.
# Check container logs
kubectl logs <POD_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE>
kubectl logs <POD_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE> --previous
Evicted
The node evicted the pod due to resource pressure.
# Check which nodes have pressure
kubectl get nodes -o custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,STATUS:.status.conditions[-1].type
# Clean up evicted pods
kubectl get pods -A | grep Evicted | awk '{print $2 " -n " $1}' | xargs -L1 kubectl delete pod
Kurtosis-specific pod types
| Pod pattern | Component | Image source |
|---|---|---|
kurtosis-engine-* |
Engine server | engine/server/Dockerfile |
kurtosis-api (in kt-* namespaces) |
API Container (APIC) | core/server/Dockerfile |
kurtosis-logs-collector-* |
Fluentbit DaemonSet | Pulled from registry |
kurtosis-logs-aggregator-* |
Vector deployment | Pulled from registry |
remove-dir-pod-* |
Fluentbit cleanup pods | busybox |
files-artifact-expander (init container) |
Files artifacts | core/files_artifacts_expander/Dockerfile |
Engine start failures
If kurtosis engine start fails:
- Check if old kurtosis namespaces exist:
kubectl get ns | grep kurtosis - Delete them:
kubectl get ns | grep kurtosis | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -r kubectl delete ns - Retry engine start
Logs collector issues
The logs collector is a DaemonSet that runs on every node. If some nodes are unhealthy:
# Check DaemonSet status
kubectl get ds -A | grep kurtosis
# See which pods are not running
kubectl get pods -A | grep logs-collector | grep -v Running
Nodes with DiskPressure or other taints may not schedule collector pods — this is expected and the engine should start with a warning about partially degraded collection.