---
title: "ContainerOOMKilled"
slug: "runbooks-knovvu-cluster-container-oom-killed-alert"
updated: 2025-05-19T13:19:20Z
published: 2025-05-19T13:19:20Z
canonical: "docs.knovvu.com/runbooks-knovvu-cluster-container-oom-killed-alert"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.knovvu.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# ContainerOOMKilled

## Meaning

This alert is triggered when a container is terminated due to an out-of-memory (OOM) condition and has restarted within the last minute. It highlights memory pressure or misconfigured resource limits. The alert continues firing for 5 minutes to ensure visibility.

<details>
<summary>Full context</summary>

Containers can be OOMKilled by the Kubernetes runtime when they exceed their memory limit. If this occurs repeatedly, it may cause application instability or degraded performance.

</details>

## Impact

- Application instability due to container restarts.
- Potential service disruption or unavailability.
- Memory thrashing and performance degradation on the node.

## Diagnosis

- Identify the affected namespace, pod, and container from the alert.
- Check the pod’s memory limits and actual memory usage.
- Inspect container logs before the crash for memory-intensive operations or leaks.
- Use metrics or dashboards to assess memory trends over time.

## Mitigation

- Increase memory limits if the usage is legitimate and sustainable.
- Optimize application memory usage or fix memory leaks.
- Consider horizontal scaling if workload spikes are expected.
- Monitor node memory pressure to avoid cascading OOMs across other pods.