K8s CreateContainerConfigError

A Kubernetes Pod status indicating that the kubelet cannot create the configuration for one or more containers, typically due to missing or inaccessible resources like Secrets or ConfigMaps referenced in the Pod spec.

Common Causes

A referenced Secret does not exist in the Pod's namespace.
A referenced ConfigMap does not exist in the Pod's namespace.
The ServiceAccount referenced by the Pod lacks permissions (RBAC) to access the Secret or ConfigMap.
A malformed or incorrectly referenced volume or environment variable source in the Pod specification.

How to Fix

1 Check Pod Events and Describe

Use `kubectl describe` on the failing Pod to see the specific error message from the kubelet, which will name the missing resource.

BASH

$ kubectl describe pod <pod-name> -n <namespace>

2 Verify Existence of Referenced Secrets/ConfigMaps

List the Secrets and ConfigMaps in the Pod's namespace to confirm they exist and are correctly named.

BASH

$ kubectl get secrets,configmaps -n <namespace>

3 Check ServiceAccount Permissions (RBAC)

If the error mentions permissions, verify the Pod's ServiceAccount has the necessary Role and RoleBinding to 'get' the Secret or ConfigMap.

BASH

$ kubectl auth can-i get secret/<secret-name> --as=system:serviceaccount:<namespace>:<serviceaccount-name>

4 Validate Pod Specification

Examine the Pod spec (often from a Deployment) to ensure volume or envFrom references are spelled correctly and point to existing objects.

BASH

$ kubectl get pod <pod-name> -n <namespace> -o yaml | grep -A5 -B5 'secretRef\|configMapRef\|volumes:'