How to fix CreateContainerError in Kubernetes

Get details about the failure:

kubectl describe pod <pod-name>

Look for Events showing:
- "failed to create container"
- Specific error messages from the runtime
- Volume mount failures
- Permission denied errors

The error message usually indicates the exact problem.

Old containers may not have been cleaned up:

# On the node, list all containers
crictl ps -a | grep <pod-name>

# Or with docker
docker ps -a | grep <pod-name>

Remove orphaned containers:

crictl rm <container-id>
# or
docker rm <container-id>

This often happens after node issues or runtime crashes.

If the image has no ENTRYPOINT/CMD and the pod spec has no command:

# Check image configuration
docker inspect <image> | grep -A 10 "Cmd\|Entrypoint"

Add a command to your pod spec:

spec:
  containers:
  - name: app
    image: myimage
    command: ["/app/start.sh"]
    # or
    args: ["--config", "/etc/config"]

Volume issues can prevent container creation:

# Check PV/PVC status
kubectl get pv,pvc

# Verify mount points on node
ssh <node-ip>
ls -la /var/lib/kubelet/pods/*/volumes/

Common issues:
- PV not bound to PVC
- NFS share inaccessible
- Host path doesn't exist
- SELinux blocking mount

If the runtime is malfunctioning:

# On the affected node
ssh <node-ip>

# For containerd
sudo systemctl restart containerd

# For docker (older clusters)
sudo systemctl restart docker

# Check status
sudo systemctl status containerd

This cleans up orphaned resources and resets runtime state.

Kubelet logs contain detailed runtime errors:

# On the node
journalctl -u kubelet -n 100 | grep -i error

# Or search for the specific pod
journalctl -u kubelet | grep <pod-name>

Look for:
- Permission denied errors
- Missing directory/file errors
- Runtime communication failures

These logs often reveal the root cause that pod events summarize.