Kubernetes Init Containers

By Alwyn Botha, Alibaba Cloud Tech Share Author. Tech Share is Alibaba Cloud's incentive program to encourage the sharing of technical knowledge and best practices within the cloud community.

This tutorial lets you use 5 different Pods to learn how Init Containers work. Init Containers are containers that run before the main container runs with your containerized application. They normally contain setup scripts that prepares an environment for you containerized application. Init Containers also ensure the wider server environment is ready for your application to start to run.

You can find a detailed list of what these containers can be used for in the official Kubernetes documentation.

Basic Demo: Init Containers That Just Sleeps (Too Slow)

All the demos in this tutorial have Init Containers that simply just sleeps or exits.

The reason is that this tutorial aims to teach you the syntax and use of Init Containers.

Once you understand this you are welcome to make your Init Containers run all the complex initializations your production applications need.

Let's create a Pod with 2 Init Containers that just echos and sleeps .

We will then investigate the Pod output to learn what got done and why.

nano myInitPod-1.yaml
   
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: myapp-pod
  labels:
    app: myapp
spec:
  containers:
  - name: myapp-container
    image: busybox
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo The app is running! && sleep 3600']
  initContainers:
  - name: my-init-container-1
    image: busybox
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-1 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-1 complete;']
  - name: my-init-container-2
    image: busybox
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-2 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-2 complete;']

Create the Pod.

kubectl create -f myInitPod-1.yaml 
   
pod/myapp-pod created

Let's investigate the creation of this Pod over the next 30 seconds.

Here is the output of kubectl get po I ran every 3 seconds - for 30 seconds.

kubectl get po  
NAME        READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:0/2   0          3s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:0/2   0          6s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:0/2   0          9s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:0/2   0          13s

Later on:

kubectl get po  
NAME        READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:1/2   0          22s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS            RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     PodInitializing   0          24s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS            RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     PodInitializing   0          29s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS            RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     PodInitializing   0          30s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   1/1     Running   0          33s

The status field describes best what happened:

Init:0/2 ... Pod initializes
Init:1/2 ... Init Container 1 running
Init:2/2 ... Init Container 2 running ( I missed catching that ouput line )
PodInitializing ... main Pod initializing
Running ... main Pod is running

This process took 33 seconds, but it is not the fault of Init Containers. ( We will fix that in section 2 )

Init Containers must all complete successfully before the main Pod may run.

All my-init-container-1 had to do was:

command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-1 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-1 complete;']

It did so successfully. We will see the logs in a second.

All my-init-container-2 had to do was:

command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-2 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-2 complete;']

It did so successfully. We will see the logs in a second.

All myapp-container-1 had to do was:

command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo The app is running! && sleep 3600']

It did so successfully. We will see the logs right now

kubectl logs pod/myapp-pod -c my-init-container-1 --timestamps=true

2019-01-05T05:59:11.009868369Z my-init-container-1 start
2019-01-05T05:59:13.013553431Z my-init-container-1 complete

kubectl logs pod/myapp-pod -c my-init-container-2 --timestamps=true

2019-01-05T05:59:18.41524046Z my-init-container-2 start
2019-01-05T05:59:20.417166592Z my-init-container-2 complete

kubectl logs pod/myapp-pod  --timestamps=true

2019-01-05T05:59:29.795805962Z The app is running!

Note the 2 Init Containers slept for 2 seconds between their start and complete message.

The last output of pod/myapp-pod shows The app is running!

In this very simple demo our 2 Init Containers slept for 2 seconds each ( pretending that to be setup work that will enable our main Pod to run successfully. )

That is the totality of Init Containers : they must run successfully before main Pod runs. They run in sequence ... 1 and 2. It's as simple as that.

Another way to investigate the state of our Pod is to use kubectl describe pod/myapp-pod .

The rest of this tutorial only contains the important state and exit code fields - to understand it more easily.

kubectl describe pod/myapp-pod 

Status:             Running
  my-init-container-1:
      echo my-init-container-1 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-1 complete;
    State:          Terminated
      Reason:       Completed
      Exit Code:    0
      Started:      Sat, 05 Jan 2019 07:59:11 +0200
      Finished:     Sat, 05 Jan 2019 07:59:13 +0200
    Ready:          True
  my-init-container-2:
      echo my-init-container-2 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-2 complete;
    State:          Terminated
      Reason:       Completed
      Exit Code:    0
      Started:      Sat, 05 Jan 2019 07:59:18 +0200
      Finished:     Sat, 05 Jan 2019 07:59:20 +0200
    Ready:          True
  myapp-container:
    State:          Running
      Started:      Sat, 05 Jan 2019 07:59:29 +0200
    Ready:          True
Conditions:
  Type              Status
  Initialized       True
  Ready             True
  ContainersReady   True
  PodScheduled      True
Events:
  Type    Reason     Age   From               Message
  ----    ------     ----  ----               -------
  Normal  Scheduled  82s   default-scheduler  Successfully assigned default/myapp-pod to minikube
  Normal  Pulling    81s   kubelet, minikube  pulling image "busybox"
  Normal  Pulled     70s   kubelet, minikube  Successfully pulled image "busybox"
  Normal  Created    70s   kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal  Started    69s   kubelet, minikube  Started container
  Normal  Pulling    67s   kubelet, minikube  pulling image "busybox"
  Normal  Pulled     62s   kubelet, minikube  Successfully pulled image "busybox"
  Normal  Created    62s   kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal  Started    62s   kubelet, minikube  Started container
  Normal  Pulling    60s   kubelet, minikube  pulling image "busybox"
  Normal  Pulled     51s   kubelet, minikube  Successfully pulled image "busybox"
  Normal  Created    51s   kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal  Started    51s   kubelet, minikube  Started container

It is much easier to read the output of this command.

Right at the top

  my-init-container-1:
      echo my-init-container-1 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-1 complete;
    State:          Terminated
      Reason:       Completed
      Exit Code:    0

Init Container 1 Terminated because it Completed successfully with exit code 0.

Init Container 2 exact same thing:

Init Container 2 Terminated because it Completed successfully with exit code 0.

  myapp-container:
    State:          Running
      Started:      Sat, 05 Jan 2019 07:59:29 +0200
    Ready:          True

myapp-container is Running and ready:

  myapp-container:
    State:          Running
      Started:      Sat, 05 Jan 2019 07:59:29 +0200
    Ready:          True
Conditions:
  Type              Status
  Initialized       True
  Ready             True
  ContainersReady   True
  PodScheduled      True

Its command was:

command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo The app is running! && sleep 3600']

It is now successfully sleeping 3600 seconds.

Why This Demo Took 30 Seconds?

The reason this demo took 30 seconds is since each container had to go pull busybox from the Internet.

Events:
  Type    Reason     Age   From               Message
  ----    ------     ----  ----               -------
  Normal  Scheduled  82s   default-scheduler  Successfully assigned default/myapp-pod to minikube
  Normal  Pulling    81s   kubelet, minikube  pulling image "busybox"
  Normal  Pulled     70s   kubelet, minikube  Successfully pulled image "busybox"
  Normal  Created    70s   kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal  Started    69s   kubelet, minikube  Started container
  Normal  Pulling    67s   kubelet, minikube  pulling image "busybox"
  Normal  Pulled     62s   kubelet, minikube  Successfully pulled image "busybox"
  Normal  Created    62s   kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal  Started    62s   kubelet, minikube  Started container
  Normal  Pulling    60s   kubelet, minikube  pulling image "busybox"
  Normal  Pulled     51s   kubelet, minikube  Successfully pulled image "busybox"
  Normal  Created    51s   kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal  Started    51s   kubelet, minikube  Started container

We fix that in section 2 of this tutorial.

Basic Demo: Init Containers That Just Sleeps

Delete our previous Pod:

kubectl delete pod/myapp-pod 
   
pod "myapp-pod" deleted

Continue reading below while that is running.

We specify imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent in the Pod spec below.

That causes the Pod to ONLY go pull our busybox image from the Internet if it is not present on the local server.

Busybox is tiny and your Internet speed may be awesome, this still makes massive time difference.

The second problem this section fix is that that it deletes a Pod immediately.

We do that by specifying terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 0 as you can see in spec below.

Create the YAML file for our Pod 2 using the text below:

nano myInitPod-2.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: myapp-pod
  labels:
    app: myapp
spec:
  containers:
  - name: myapp-container
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo The app is running! && sleep 3600']
  terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 0
  initContainers:
  - name: my-init-container-1
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-1 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-1 complete;']
  - name: my-init-container-2
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-2 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-2 complete;']

Create the Pod.

kubectl create -f myInitPod-2.yaml 
   
pod/myapp-pod created

Investigate to determine if this Pod got running faster:

kubectl describe pod/myapp-pod 
   
Name:               myapp-pod
Namespace:          default
Priority:           0
PriorityClassName:  <none>
Node:               minikube/10.0.2.15
Start Time:         Sat, 05 Jan 2019 08:33:03 +0200
Labels:             app=myapp
Annotations:        <none>
Status:             Running
IP:                 172.17.0.5
Init Containers:
  my-init-container-1:
    Container ID:  docker://5175ac45ec3f9664d511db083f1b15e817cc4c9ac28be31f6ae356583cf1efcb
    Image:         busybox
    Image ID:      docker-pullable://busybox@sha256:7964ad52e396a6e045c39b5a44438424ac52e12e4d5a25d94895f2058cb863a0
    Port:          <none>
    Host Port:     <none>
    Command:
      sh
      -c
      echo my-init-container-1 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-1 complete;
    State:          Terminated
      Reason:       Completed
      Exit Code:    0
      Started:      Sat, 05 Jan 2019 08:33:04 +0200
      Finished:     Sat, 05 Jan 2019 08:33:06 +0200
    Ready:          True
    Restart Count:  0
    Environment:    <none>
    Mounts:
      /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from default-token-gs2wt (ro)
  my-init-container-2:
    Container ID:  docker://0b20b8bbc582663fdd8c5050e96268497095406b024f9c5c84e518e6818b8e16
    Image:         busybox
    Image ID:      docker-pullable://busybox@sha256:7964ad52e396a6e045c39b5a44438424ac52e12e4d5a25d94895f2058cb863a0
    Port:          <none>
    Host Port:     <none>
    Command:
      sh
      -c
      echo my-init-container-2 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-2 complete;
    State:          Terminated
      Reason:       Completed
      Exit Code:    0
      Started:      Sat, 05 Jan 2019 08:33:07 +0200
      Finished:     Sat, 05 Jan 2019 08:33:09 +0200
    Ready:          True
    Restart Count:  0
    Environment:    <none>
    Mounts:
      /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from default-token-gs2wt (ro)
Containers:
  myapp-container:
    Container ID:  docker://ad93ff9d3033f694a93b1656768f6ac58e62278cc608c3b5d33ac793fc3779cb
    Image:         busybox
    Image ID:      docker-pullable://busybox@sha256:7964ad52e396a6e045c39b5a44438424ac52e12e4d5a25d94895f2058cb863a0
    Port:          <none>
    Host Port:     <none>
    Command:
      sh
      -c
      echo The app is running! && sleep 3600
    State:          Running
      Started:      Sat, 05 Jan 2019 08:33:10 +0200
    Ready:          True
    Restart Count:  0
    Environment:    <none>
    Mounts:
      /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from default-token-gs2wt (ro)
Conditions:
  Type              Status
  Initialized       True 
  Ready             True 
  ContainersReady   True 
  PodScheduled      True 
Volumes:
  default-token-gs2wt:
    Type:        Secret (a volume populated by a Secret)
    SecretName:  default-token-gs2wt
    Optional:    false
QoS Class:       BestEffort
Node-Selectors:  <none>
Tolerations:     node.kubernetes.io/not-ready:NoExecute for 300s
                 node.kubernetes.io/unreachable:NoExecute for 300s
Events:
  Type    Reason     Age   From               Message
  ----    ------     ----  ----               -------
  Normal  Scheduled  42s   default-scheduler  Successfully assigned default/myapp-pod to minikube
  Normal  Pulled     42s   kubelet, minikube  Container image "busybox" already present on machine
  Normal  Created    41s   kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal  Started    41s   kubelet, minikube  Started container
  Normal  Pulled     38s   kubelet, minikube  Container image "busybox" already present on machine
  Normal  Created    38s   kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal  Started    38s   kubelet, minikube  Started container
  Normal  Pulled     35s   kubelet, minikube  Container image "busybox" already present on machine
  Normal  Created    35s   kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal  Started    35s   kubelet, minikube  Started container

Look only at last 10 lines of this output. 7 seconds to get main container started versus 33 seconds before.

Note we have 2 Init Containers sleeping 2 seconds each = 4 seconds. So the overall time for just our main container is 3 seconds.

All 3 containers use busybox. Note the message:

Container image "busybox" already present on machine

26 seconds saved getting busybox 3 times on a fast Internet connection.

Unfortunately you cannot use imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent in your prod environment. In prod you probably should pull your latest image from your private repository every time a Pod is started ( to get the latest version ) .

If we now delete our Pod ...

kubectl delete -f myInitPod-2.yaml
   
pod "myapp-pod" force deleted

and use

kubectl get po 
   
No resources found.

the Pod will be gone: immediately .

terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 0 allows us to quickly test Pods in development .

USING THIS IN PROD WILL CAUSE DATA CORRUPTION.

Determine a proper terminationGracePeriodSeconds for your prod use cases.

Basic Demo: Init Containers That Crash Forever

Init Containers must complete successfully before the main container can run.

Now we demo Init Container number 1 crashing : exit code = 1 ... and observe the effects.

Note name: my-init-container-1 command ... exit 1

command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-1 start; exit 1 ;echo my-init-container-1 complete;']

nano myInitPod-3.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: myapp-pod
  labels:
    app: myapp
spec:
  containers:
  - name: myapp-container
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo The app is running! && sleep 3600']
  terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 0
  initContainers:
  - name: my-init-container-1
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-1 start; exit 1 ;echo my-init-container-1 complete;']
  - name: my-init-container-2
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-2 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-2 complete;']

Create the Pod.

kubectl create -f myInitPod-3.yaml

pod/myapp-pod created

Get detail on currently running Pods:

kubectl get po

NAME        READY   STATUS                  RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:CrashLoopBackOff   1          5s

CrashLoopBackOff - this means that container 1 starts, exit 1 crashes, the Kubernetes tries again with same results. Its in a crash loop.

Investigate this further

kubectl describe pod/myapp-pod 

Events:
  Type     Reason     Age               From               Message
  Normal   Scheduled  21s               default-scheduler  Successfully assigned default/myapp-pod to minikube
  Normal   Pulled     3s (x3 over 20s)  kubelet, minikube  Container image "busybox" already present on machine
  Normal   Created    3s (x3 over 20s)  kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal   Started    3s (x3 over 20s)  kubelet, minikube  Started container

Look at last 5 lines. Container got started and created 3 times in 20 seconds. It is in a crash loop

Running kubectl get po again.

kubectl get po

NAME        READY   STATUS                  RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:CrashLoopBackOff   3          89s

Restarted 3 times in 89 seconds.

Our Pod is broken. Init Container 2 did not even try running, since Init Container 1 has crashed.

Our main Pod did not even get close to try to run - process stopped at Init Container 1 that crashes repeatedly.

Delete our problem Pod:

kubectl delete -f myInitPod-3.yaml --force --grace-period=0 
   
pod "myapp-pod" force deleted

Ensure it is gone:

kubectl get po 

No resources found.

We just proved this is true: Init Containers must complete successfully before the main container can run.

They MUST succeed in creating environment for main container otherwise the main container cannot start.

The default restartPolicy is Always. Pod will continue trying to start forever.

We fix this in next section.

Basic Demo: Init Containers That Crash Just Once

It may be that in your prod environment you want your Pod to terminate immediately when its Init Containers crash.

You do that by specifying restartPolicy: Never in your Pod spec.

Let's create a Pod with such a spec and see what happens when it encounters an exit code 1 error in its Init Container number one.

Note restartPolicy: Never below:

nano myInitPod-4.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: myapp-pod
  labels:
    app: myapp
spec:
  containers:
  - name: myapp-container
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo The app is running! && sleep 3600']
  terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 0
  restartPolicy: Never
  
  initContainers:
  - name: my-init-container-1
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-1 start; exit 1 ;echo my-init-container-1 complete;']
  - name: my-init-container-2
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-2 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-2 complete;']

kubectl create -f myInitPod-4.yaml 
   
pod/myapp-pod created

Investigate Pod status:

kubectl get po

NAME        READY   STATUS       RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:Error   0          3s

30 seconds later

NAME        READY   STATUS       RESTARTS   AGE

myapp-pod   0/1     Init:Error   0          28s

restartPolicy: Never prevents Pod from repeatedly restarting.

kubectl describe pod/myapp-pod 

Status:             Failed
  my-init-container-1:
      echo my-init-container-1 start; exit 1 ;echo my-init-container-1 complete;
    State:          Terminated
      Reason:       Error
      Exit Code:    1
      Started:      Sat, 05 Jan 2019 09:08:06 +0200
      Finished:     Sat, 05 Jan 2019 09:08:06 +0200
    Ready:          False
  my-init-container-2:
      echo my-init-container-2 start; sleep 2;echo my-init-container-2 complete;
    State:          Waiting
      Reason:       PodInitializing
    Ready:          False
  myapp-container:
    State:          Waiting
      Reason:       PodInitializing
    Ready:          False
Conditions:
  Type              Status
  Initialized       False
  Ready             False
  ContainersReady   False
  PodScheduled      True
Events:
  Type    Reason     Age   From               Message
  Normal  Scheduled  16s   default-scheduler  Successfully assigned default/myapp-pod to minikube
  Normal  Pulled     16s   kubelet, minikube  Container image "busybox" already present on machine
  Normal  Created    16s   kubelet, minikube  Created container
  Normal  Started    15s   kubelet, minikube  Started container

At the top we see Init Container 1 terminated with exit code 1.

  my-init-container-1:
      echo my-init-container-1 start; exit 1 ;echo my-init-container-1 complete;
    State:          Terminated
      Reason:       Error
      Exit Code:    1

Init Container 2 state is Waiting for Init Container 1 to finish.

Main container myapp-container is also waiting.

restartPolicy: Never terminates a Pod when it encounters an error.

We can now delete our broken Pod:

kubectl delete -f myInitPod-4.yaml --force --grace-period=0

pod "myapp-pod" force deleted

Check its gone:

kubectl get po

No resources found.

Realistic Production Init Container Simulation

In production, your Init Containers may take longer than a second to finish.

This last section of the tutorial creates 4 Init Containers that each run for 3 seconds.

The main container then sleeps for 10 seconds and exits.

Let's see what you should normally observe in a live prod environment where all your Init Containers and containers are running successfully.

Note there are no exit 1 ( errors ) in this Pod spec below: just sleep 3 or sleep 10.

I removed terminationGracePeriodSeconds: 0 This simulates a live Pod: it must take the default 30 seconds to terminate gracefully.

nano myInitPod-7.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: myapp-pod
  labels:
    app: myapp
spec:
  containers:
  - name: myapp-container
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo The app is running! && sleep 10']
  
  restartPolicy: Never
  
  initContainers:

  - name: my-init-container-1
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-1 start; sleep 3 ;echo my-init-container-1 complete;']

  - name: my-init-container-2
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-2 start; sleep 3;echo my-init-container-2 complete;']  

  - name: my-init-container-3
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-3 start; sleep 3;echo my-init-container-3 complete;']  

  - name: my-init-container-4
    image: busybox
    imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'echo my-init-container-4 start; sleep 3;echo my-init-container-4 complete;']

Create the Pod.

kubectl create -f myInitPod-7.yaml 
   
pod/myapp-pod created

Here is the output of kubectl get po I ran every 3 seconds - for 30 seconds.

kubectl get po 
   
NAME        READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:0/4   0          3s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:1/4   0          6s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:2/4   0          9s
     
NAME        READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:2/4   0          11s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS     RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Init:3/4   0          15s

NAME        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   1/1     Running   0          19s
   
NAME        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   1/1     Running   0          22s

NAME        READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   1/1     Running   0          26s   
   
NAME        READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
myapp-pod   0/1     Completed   0          30s

Several noteworthy things here:

restarts stay 0 ... no errors and no restarts
there are 4 Init Containers
while Init Container 1 to 4 are busy the READY status is zero
only after all 4 Init Containers finish do STATUS change to Running 1/1
Running 1/1 this means that one running container out of all ONE existing containers in the Pod.

Init Containers cease after they complete - at the end we have only ONE container running.

Last line STATUS : Completed. Our Pod ran its sleep for 10 seconds ( from age 19 to 30 sec ) then completes successfully.

We can now delete our final Pod:

kubectl delete -f myInitPod-7.yaml

pod "myapp-pod" deleted

Check its gone:

kubectl get po

No resources found.

Interesting. Pod got deleted immediately. It did not linger in the terminating state for 30 seconds, probably because its STATUS was completed already. It had no final cleanup to do.

This was the state of our Pod before deletion:

  myapp-container:
    State:          Terminated
      Reason:       Completed
      Exit Code:    0
      Started:      Sat, 05 Jan 2019 10:37:06 +0200
      Finished:     Sat, 05 Jan 2019 10:37:16 +0200
    Ready:          False

Its State: Terminated because of Reason: Completed with Exit Code: 0

It could be deleted immediately since there was nothing running and hence nothing to catch and process a shutdown signal.

Clean Up

No cleanup needed since we deleted the Pods immediately after use.

Community

Kubernetes Init Containers

Basic Demo: Init Containers That Just Sleeps (Too Slow)

Why This Demo Took 30 Seconds?

Basic Demo: Init Containers That Just Sleeps

Basic Demo: Init Containers That Crash Forever

Basic Demo: Init Containers That Crash Just Once

Realistic Production Init Container Simulation

Clean Up

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