Delete Namespace Stuck At Terminating State

27 Jan 2019

Problem

Sometimes after deleting a namespace (for example foo), it sticks on “Terminating” state, and when you enter:

kubectl delete namespace foo

You get:

Error from server (Conflict): Operation cannot be fulfilled on namespaces "foo": The system is ensuring all content is removed from this namespace.  Upon completion, this namespace will automatically be purged by the system.

Solution

Let’s get rid of foo namespace!

Run this command:

kubectl get namespace foo -o json > tmp.json

Open tmp.json and remove kubernetes from finalizers. Just save it!

Now you need your cluster address:

kubectl cluster-info

Then run this command:

curl -k -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X PUT --data-binary @tmp.json http(s)://[IP]:[PORT]/api/v1/namespaces/[NAMESPACE]/finalize

Make sure to use your cluster address!

Oh! An error! You can’t do this action as anonymous?

namespaces "foo" is forbidden: User "system:anonymous" cannot update namespaces/finalize in the namespace "foo"

Don’t worry! Use magic kubernetes proxy:

kubectl proxy  
// Starting to serve on 127.0.0.1:8001

this command won’t finish. So you can use & at the end, or continue in a new terminal.

Then, run the last command again, and use proxy IP and Port.

Now check your namespaces:

kubectl get namespaces

Namespace foo has been gone!

Kubernetes