Challenge, Easy,  on  Kubernetes

Resolve OOMKilled Errors by Reading VPA Memory Recommendations

Scenario

A Deployment web-app is running in the production namespace with 2 replicas.
The web-container consumes more memory than the configured limit, causing repeated OOMKilled events.

A Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA) web-app-vpa is already configured for this Deployment with updateMode: Off, meaning it only provides resource recommendations and does not automatically update the Deployment.

Task

  1. Check the VPA recommendation for the web-container.
  2. Update the Deployment web-app to apply the VPA Target recommended memory request and memory limit.
  3. Ensure the Deployment rollout completes successfully and the replica count remains 2.

Do not modify CPU values (they must remain 50m). Wait a few minutes for the VPA to collect metrics before checking recommendations.

Hint 1

Use kubectl describe pod to identify OOMKilled containers and kubectl describe vpa web-app-vpa -n production to view resource recommendations. Apply the recommended values using kubectl set resources or by editing the Deployment directly.

See the official docs: Vertical Pod Autoscaler

Test Cases

How to Author Challenges on iximiuz Labs

Instead of providing a subpar online editing experience, iximiuz Labs offers a helper CLI tool called labctl, allowing you to use your favorite text editor (or a full-featured IDE) to write content from the comfort of your local machine.

Install labctl CLI

curl -sf https://labs.iximiuz.com/cli/install.sh | sh

This will download and install the latest version of the labctl CLI. You only need to do this once per workstation.

Authorize labctl

labctl auth login

This will open a browser window asking you to authorize labctl to access your account. You need to do it after a fresh install of labctl and repeat it whenever the auth session expires.

Pull challenge content

labctl content pull challenge resolve-oomkilled-errors-by-reading-vpa-recommendations-c019e8d3

This will create a local copy of the challenge content in a directory named resolve-oomkilled-errors-by-reading-vpa-recommendations-c019e8d3. You only need to do this once per challenge.

Stream your changes

labctl content push -fw challenge resolve-oomkilled-errors-by-reading-vpa-recommendations-c019e8d3

Run this command in a separate terminal to continuously upload your changes to the server while editing the challenge in your favorite text editor or IDE.

You can also use labctl to create, list, and delete your content. Learn more about the available commands: labctl content --help

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