How to Fix OOMKilled and ImagePullBackOff in Kubernetes

Author

Govardhana M K
January 27, 2026

TechOps Examples

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IN TODAY'S EDITION

🧠 Use Case

  • How to Fix OOMKilled and ImagePullBackOff in Kubernetes

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🧠 USE CASE

How to Fix OOMKilled and ImagePullBackOff in Kubernetes

Let's take a quick look at these two errors, as they are among the most common issues in Kubernetes.

We’ll break down why they happen, how to troubleshoot them effectively.

OOMKilled

OOMKilled occurs in Kubernetes when a container exceeds its memory limit or tries to access unavailable resources on a node, flagged by exit code 137.

Pods must use less memory than the total available on the node; if they exceed this, Kubernetes will kill some pods to restore balance.

Learn more about OOMKilled visually here:

How to Fix OOMKilled Kubernetes Error (Exit Code 137)

1. Identify OOMKilled Event: Run kubectl get pods and check if the pod status shows OOMKilled.

2. Gather Pod Details: Use kubectl describe pod [pod-name] and review the Events section for the OOMKilled reason.

Check the Events section of the describe pod, and look for the following message:


State:          Running
Started:      Tue, 27 Jan 2026 19:15:00 +0200
Last State:   Terminated
Reason:       OOMKilled
Exit Code:    137
...

3. Analyze Memory Usage: Check memory usage patterns to identify if the limit was exceeded due to a spike or consistent high usage.

4. Adjust Memory Settings: Increase memory limits in pod specs if necessary, or debug and fix any memory leaks in the application.

5. Prevent Overcommitment: Ensure memory requests do not exceed node capacity by adjusting pod resource requests and limits.

Point worth noting:

If a pod is terminate due to a memory issue. it doesn’t necessarily mean it will be removed from the node.

If the node’s restart policy is set to ‘Always’, the pod will attempt to restart

To check the QoS class of a pod, run this command:

kubectl get pod -o jsonpath='{.status.qosClass}'

To inspect the oom_score of a pod:

1. Run kubectl exec -it /bin/bash

2. To see the oom_score, run cat/proc//oom_score

3. To see the oom_score_adj, run cat/proc//oom_score_adj

The pod with the lowest oom_score is the first to be terminated when the node experiences memory exhaustion.

ImagePullBackOff

ImagePullBackOff error happens when the system fails to retrieve the required container image. When this occurs, the container remains in a Waiting state, unable to proceed with deployment.

What exactly happens during an ImagePullBackOff?
Fixing ImagePullBackOff

1. Fix Manifest or Image Name

Correct typos or incorrect image names in the pod manifest.

Apply the corrected manifest to update the pod.

$ kubectl apply -f pod.yaml
pod/techops-pod configured

2. Non existent Image Validation

Ensure the image is available in the registry before pulling.

$ docker push techopsexamples.com/api-service:v2.5

3. Image Registry Authorization

Create a secret with credentials to access the private registry.

$ kubectl create secret docker-registry reg-secret
--docker-server=private-repo.com
--docker-username=myuser
--docker-password=mysecurepassword
[email protected]

Link the secret to the pod's manifest to allow access.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: private-api-pod
  labels:
    app: private-api
spec:
  containers:
  - name: private-api-container
    image: private-repo.com/internal-app:v3.0
  imagePullSecrets:
  - name: reg-secret

Next time you encounter an OOMKilled or ImagePullBackOff error, you'll know exactly how to diagnose and fix it efficiently.

Anton Weiss (PerfectScale by DoiT) & Arsh Sharma from MetalBear are conducting a live workshop on how to test AI-generated code directly against your K8s environment without deploying.

You’ll see a live demo using Cursor + mirrord to get fast, real feedback safely.

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