<p>I've got a k8s cronjob that consists of an init container and a one pod container. If the init container fails, the Pod in the main container never gets started, and stays in "PodInitializing" indefinitely.</p>

<p>My intent is for the job to fail if the init container fails.</p>

<pre><code>---
apiVersion: batch/v1beta1
kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: job-name
  namespace: default
  labels:
    run: job-name
spec:
  schedule: "15 23 * * *"
  startingDeadlineSeconds: 60
  concurrencyPolicy: "Forbid"
  successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 30
  failedJobsHistoryLimit: 10
  jobTemplate:
    spec:
      # only try twice
      backoffLimit: 2
      activeDeadlineSeconds: 60
      template:
        spec:
          initContainers:
          - name: init-name
            image: init-image:1.0
          restartPolicy: Never
          containers:
          - name: some-name
            image: someimage:1.0
          restartPolicy: Never
</code></pre>

<p>a kubectl on the pod that's stuck results in: </p>

<pre><code>Name:               job-name-1542237120-rgvzl
Namespace:          default
Priority:           0
PriorityClassName:  &lt;none&gt;
Node:               my-node-98afffbf-0psc/10.0.0.0
Start Time:         Wed, 14 Nov 2018 23:12:16 +0000
Labels:             controller-uid=ID
                    job-name=job-name-1542237120
Annotations:        kubernetes.io/limit-ranger:
                      LimitRanger plugin set: cpu request for container elasticsearch-metrics; cpu request for init container elasticsearch-repo-setup; cpu requ...
Status:             Failed
IP:                 10.0.0.0
Controlled By:      Job/job-1542237120
Init Containers:
init-container-name:
    Container ID:  docker://ID
    Image:         init-image:1.0
    Image ID:      init-imageID
    Port:          &lt;none&gt;
    Host Port:     &lt;none&gt;
    State:          Terminated
      Reason:       Error
      Exit Code:    1
      Started:      Wed, 14 Nov 2018 23:12:21 +0000
      Finished:     Wed, 14 Nov 2018 23:12:32 +0000
    Ready:          False
    Restart Count:  0
    Requests:
      cpu:        100m
    Environment:  &lt;none&gt;
    Mounts:
      /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from default-token-wwl5n (ro)
Containers:
  some-name:
    Container ID:  
    Image:         someimage:1.0
    Image ID:      
    Port:          &lt;none&gt;
    Host Port:     &lt;none&gt;
    State:          Waiting
      Reason:       PodInitializing
    Ready:          False
    Restart Count:  0
    Requests:
      cpu:        100m
    Environment:  &lt;none&gt;
    Mounts:
      /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from default-token-wwl5n (ro)
Conditions:
  Type              Status
  Initialized       False 
  Ready             False 
  ContainersReady   False 
  PodScheduled      True
</code></pre>

<p>To try and figure this out I would run the command:</p>

<p><code>kubectl get pods</code> - Add the namespace param if required.</p>

<p>Then copy the pod name and run:</p>

<p><code>kubectl describe pod {POD_NAME}</code></p>

<p>That should give you some information as to why it's stuck in the initializing state.</p>
