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Helm release failed or pending

Upgrade stuck in pending-install or pending-upgrade — diagnose and recover.

Reviewed: ·Tested on: Kubernetes 1.29, Terraform 1.8, Ubuntu 22.04

Symptoms

  • helm upgrade hangs or returns pending-upgrade
  • kubectl shows CrashLoopBackOff after helm install
  • helm list shows failed or pending status

1Check release status and history

helm list -A
helm status <release> -n <namespace>
helm history <release> -n <namespace>
Helm cheat sheet →Helm — Troubleshoot →

2Inspect failed resources

kubectl get pods -n <namespace>
kubectl describe pod <pod> -n <namespace>
kubectl logs <pod> -n <namespace> --previous
kubectl cheat sheet →

3Rollback or uninstall

helm rollback <release> <revision> -n <namespace>
# or clean reinstall
helm uninstall <release> -n <namespace>
helm install <release> ./chart -n <namespace> -f values.yaml

4Debug template output

helm template <release> ./chart -f values.yaml | kubectl apply --dry-run=client -f -
helm upgrade <release> ./chart -n <namespace> --dry-run --debug

Related

helmkuberneteskubectlk8s-deployment-servicek8s-ingress