How to fix Waiting for rollout to finish in Kubernetes

Get detailed information:

kubectl rollout status deployment/<name>
kubectl describe deployment <name>
kubectl get pods -o wide
kubectl get events -n <namespace> --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'

Look for pods in Pending, ImagePullBackOff, or CrashLoopBackOff. The Events section shows why pods aren't starting.

For each non-running pod:

kubectl describe pod <pod-name>
kubectl logs <pod-name>
kubectl logs <pod-name> --previous  # If crashed, see previous logs

Common issues shown in describe output:
- "Pending": Check "Events" section for resource/scheduling issues
- "ImagePullBackOff": Image pull secret missing or credentials wrong
- "CrashLoopBackOff": Application exits immediately (see logs)
- "Not Ready": Readiness probe failing

Check if resource constraints are blocking:

kubectl top nodes
kubectl describe nodes
kubectl top pods -n <namespace>

Look for:
- CPU/memory pressure on nodes
- "Insufficient cpu" or "Insufficient memory" in pod events
- Disk pressure preventing pod scheduling

If constrained, scale down other deployments or add nodes.

If rollout takes longer than 10 minutes (default progressDeadlineSeconds), extend it:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: myapp
spec:
  progressDeadlineSeconds: 1800  # 30 minutes
  # ... rest of spec

Apply: kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml. This doesn't fix the issue but gives slow rollouts time to complete.

If readiness probes are timing out, make them more lenient:

spec:
  containers:
  - name: app
    readinessProbe:
      httpGet:
        path: /health
        port: 8080
      initialDelaySeconds: 30  # Wait before first check
      timeoutSeconds: 5
      periodSeconds: 10
      failureThreshold: 3

Increase initialDelaySeconds to allow app startup time. Test probe locally:

kubectl exec -it <pod> -- curl http://localhost:8080/health

Check image configuration:

kubectl get deploy <name> -o yaml | grep -A2 image:

Test pull:

docker pull <image:tag>

For private registries, ensure imagePullSecrets exist:

kubectl get secret <secret-name>
kubectl describe secret <secret-name>

Create if missing:

kubectl create secret docker-registry regcred \
  --docker-server=myregistry.com \
  --docker-username=user \
  --docker-password=pass

If old pods don't terminate, preStop hooks may be hanging:

spec:
  containers:
  - name: app
    lifecycle:
      preStop:
        exec:
          command: ["/bin/sh", "-c", "sleep 15"]

Review current setup:

kubectl get deploy <name> -o yaml | grep -A10 lifecycle:

Make sure preStop commands complete quickly. Also check terminationGracePeriodSeconds (default 30s):

spec:
  terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 60  # Increase if cleanup takes time

If the rollout is completely blocked, restart the deployment:

kubectl rollout restart deployment/<name>

This terminates old pods and starts fresh replicas. Monitor:

kubectl rollout status deployment/<name>

If this also hangs, the issue is pod-level (resource/image/probe), not rollout-specific.

Track rollout progress in real-time:

kubectl get pods -n <namespace> -w  # Watch mode, updates live

In another terminal:

kubectl describe pod <pod-name>  # See latest events

Watch for status changes: Pending → Running → Ready. If pod stays Pending, check node describe output for "Insufficient" messages.