How to fix PIDPressure in Kubernetes

SSH into the node and check the max PID limit:

cat /proc/sys/kernel/pid_max

Default is usually 32768 or 4194304. A value below 10000 is likely too low.

Safely drain Pods from the affected node:

kubectl drain NODE_NAME --ignore-daemonsets --delete-emptydir-data

This allows the cluster to reschedule Pods on other nodes.

On the node, increase the PID limit (temporary):

echo 2097152 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/pid_max

For persistence, add to /etc/sysctl.conf:

kernel.pid_max = 2097152

Then apply:

sudo sysctl -p

Check which Pods are consuming the most PIDs:

kubectl top pods -A --sort-by=cpu

Look for Pods with unusual process counts. Delete or update them:

kubectl delete pod POD_NAME -n NAMESPACE

After fixing the issue, uncordon the node:

kubectl uncordon NODE_NAME

Monitor the PIDPressure condition:

kubectl get nodes -w
kubectl describe node NODE_NAME | grep -A5 "Conditions:"

The PIDPressure should return to False.