I am trying to deploy Browsertrix on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.10 using k3s and helm.
I have followed the instructions for remote deployment and manage to get some services running, but no backend.
Running kubectl get pods shows the two backend pods are in ‘init’ status.
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
browsertrix-cloud-backend-7d5f9c6cc-tw4pn 0/2 Init:0/1 0 2m8s
browsertrix-cloud-backend-b895df648-xvwff 0/2 Init:0/1 0 2m8s
browsertrix-cloud-frontend-76f584cbbc-q69t5 1/1 Running 0 2m7s
btrix-metacontroller-helm-0 1/1 Running 0 2m6s
local-minio-7cf5b78b4b-29v56 1/1 Running 0 2m7s
local-mongo-0 1/1 Running 0 2m6s
The frontend is definitely running because I get the login screen at http://129.67.246.94:30870/log-in
Running kubectl describe pod on one of the initializing pods shows:
Name: browsertrix-cloud-backend-b895df648-xvwff
Namespace: default
Priority: 0
Service Account: default
Node: algorithmic-archive-dev/129.67.246.94
Start Time: Tue, 10 Jun 2025 14:49:36 +0100
Labels: app=browsertrix-cloud
pod-template-hash=b895df648
role=backend
Annotations: helm.update: gB6A0
Status: Pending
IP: 10.42.0.21
IPs:
IP: 10.42.0.21
Controlled By: ReplicaSet/browsertrix-cloud-backend-b895df648
Init Containers:
migrations:
Container ID: containerd://511b8fad7e8a558bcf0417e16239620840ae4c9b9dc403ac74059f629fb07f4e
Image: docker.io/webrecorder/browsertrix-backend:1.16.2
Image ID: docker.io/webrecorder/browsertrix-backend@sha256:a2c5b1c8e915a31e5b05c7820058d6e2952a079540782a38d7d898d1a99b5071
Port: <none>
Host Port: <none>
Command:
python3
-m
btrixcloud.main_migrations
State: Running
Started: Tue, 10 Jun 2025 14:49:37 +0100
Ready: False
Restart Count: 0
Limits:
memory: 350Mi
Requests:
cpu: 100m
memory: 350Mi
Environment Variables from:
backend-env-config ConfigMap Optional: false
backend-auth Secret Optional: false
mongo-auth Secret Optional: false
Environment:
MOTOR_MAX_WORKERS: 1
Mounts:
/app/btrixcloud/email-templates/ from email-templates (rw)
/app/btrixcloud/templates/ from app-templates (rw)
/config from config-volume (rw)
/ops-configs/ from ops-configs (rw)
/ops-proxy-configs/ from ops-proxy-configs (rw)
/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from kube-api-access-mslvv (ro)
Containers:
api:
Container ID:
Image: docker.io/webrecorder/browsertrix-backend:1.16.2
Image ID:
Port: <none>
Host Port: <none>
Command:
gunicorn
btrixcloud.main:app_root
--bind
0.0.0.0:8000
--access-logfile
-
--workers
1
--worker-class
uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker
State: Waiting
Reason: PodInitializing
Ready: False
Restart Count: 0
Limits:
memory: 350Mi
Requests:
cpu: 100m
memory: 350Mi
Liveness: http-get http://:8000/healthz delay=5s timeout=1s period=30s #success=1 #failure=15
Readiness: http-get http://:8000/healthz delay=5s timeout=1s period=30s #success=1 #failure=5
Startup: http-get http://:8000/healthzStartup delay=0s timeout=1s period=10s #success=1 #failure=8640
Environment Variables from:
backend-env-config ConfigMap Optional: false
backend-auth Secret Optional: false
mongo-auth Secret Optional: false
Environment:
MOTOR_MAX_WORKERS: 1
BTRIX_SUBS_APP_API_KEY: <set to the key 'BTRIX_SUBS_APP_API_KEY' in secret 'btrix-subs-app-secret'> Optional: true
BTRIX_SUBS_APP_URL: <set to the key 'BTRIX_SUBS_APP_URL' in secret 'btrix-subs-app-secret'> Optional: true
Mounts:
/app/btrixcloud/email-templates/ from email-templates (rw)
/app/btrixcloud/templates/ from app-templates (rw)
/ops-configs/ from ops-configs (rw)
/ops-proxy-configs/ from ops-proxy-configs (rw)
/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from kube-api-access-mslvv (ro)
op:
Container ID:
Image: docker.io/webrecorder/browsertrix-backend:1.16.2
Image ID:
Port: <none>
Host Port: <none>
Command:
gunicorn
btrixcloud.main_op:app_root
--bind
0.0.0.0:8756
--access-logfile
-
--workers
1
--worker-class
uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker
State: Waiting
Reason: PodInitializing
Ready: False
Restart Count: 0
Limits:
memory: 350Mi
Requests:
cpu: 100m
memory: 350Mi
Liveness: http-get http://:8756/healthz delay=5s timeout=1s period=30s #success=1 #failure=15
Readiness: http-get http://:8756/healthz delay=5s timeout=1s period=30s #success=1 #failure=5
Startup: http-get http://:8756/healthz delay=5s timeout=1s period=5s #success=1 #failure=5
Environment Variables from:
backend-env-config ConfigMap Optional: false
backend-auth Secret Optional: false
mongo-auth Secret Optional: false
Environment:
MOTOR_MAX_WORKERS: 1
Mounts:
/app/btrixcloud/email-templates/ from email-templates (rw)
/app/btrixcloud/templates/ from app-templates (rw)
/config from config-volume (rw)
/ops-configs/ from ops-configs (rw)
/ops-proxy-configs/ from ops-proxy-configs (rw)
/var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount from kube-api-access-mslvv (ro)
Conditions:
Type Status
PodReadyToStartContainers True
Initialized False
Ready False
ContainersReady False
PodScheduled True
Volumes:
config-volume:
Type: ConfigMap (a volume populated by a ConfigMap)
Name: shared-job-config
Optional: false
ops-configs:
Type: Secret (a volume populated by a Secret)
SecretName: ops-configs
Optional: false
ops-proxy-configs:
Type: Secret (a volume populated by a Secret)
SecretName: ops-proxy-configs
Optional: true
app-templates:
Type: ConfigMap (a volume populated by a ConfigMap)
Name: app-templates
Optional: false
email-templates:
Type: ConfigMap (a volume populated by a ConfigMap)
Name: email-templates
Optional: false
kube-api-access-mslvv:
Type: Projected (a volume that contains injected data from multiple sources)
TokenExpirationSeconds: 3607
ConfigMapName: kube-root-ca.crt
ConfigMapOptional: <nil>
DownwardAPI: true
QoS Class: Burstable
Node-Selectors: <none>
Tolerations: node.kubernetes.io/not-ready:NoExecute op=Exists for 300s
node.kubernetes.io/unreachable:NoExecute op=Exists for 300s
Events:
Type Reason Age From Message
---- ------ ---- ---- -------
Normal Scheduled 3m23s default-scheduler Successfully assigned default/browsertrix-cloud-backend-b895df648-xvwff to algorithmic-archive-dev
Normal Pulled 3m23s kubelet Container image "docker.io/webrecorder/browsertrix-backend:1.16.2" already present on machine
Normal Created 3m23s kubelet Created container: migrations
Normal Started 3m22s kubelet Started container migrations
So I can see it started doing some migrations, but it never moves on from this state, it’s stuck initializing forever.
I tried to check the logs but can’t get anything because the pod is initializing.
Error from server (BadRequest): container "api" in pod "browsertrix-cloud-backend-b895df648-xvwff" is waiting to start: PodInitializing
Can anyone troubleshoot what might be going on here?