OOMKilled ☸️ Kubernetes

Kubernetes: OOMKilled (exit code 137)

The container used more memory than its limit, and the kernel killed it.

Seen on: Kubernetes Docker Node.js

Meaning

Memory limits are hard caps. When exceeded, the container is killed immediately (exit 137) — no graceful shutdown, often without application logs.

Common causes

  • Memory limit too low for the workload
  • Memory leak
  • Runtime not container-aware (old JVMs, Node default heap)
  • Spikes from large requests/batch jobs

⚡ Quick fix

  1. Confirm: kubectl describe pod → Last State: OOMKilled
  2. Raise resources.limits.memory after measuring real usage (kubectl top pod)
  3. Make runtimes respect limits (-XX:MaxRAMPercentage, --max-old-space-size)

Detailed fix by platform

Kubernetes

  1. Resources:
    yaml
    resources:
  requests: { memory: "256Mi", cpu: "100m" }
  limits:   { memory: "512Mi" }

Node.js

  1. NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=384 for a 512Mi limit.

How to diagnose

  1. Reason — OOMKilled in Last State?
  2. Usage — Actual memory over time?
  3. Runtime — Heap sized to the limit?

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