Below are the exact steps/commands you can run.
1) Locate the Deployment and its namespace
kubectl get deploy -A | grep nginx-resources
You should see output like:
nginx-resources ...
Set a variable (replace with what you see):
NS=
Confirm replicas:
kubectl -n $NS get deploy nginx-resources -o jsonpath='{.spec.replicas}{"\n"}'
2) Check if there is a ResourceQuota in that namespace
kubectl -n $NS get resourcequota
kubectl -n $NS describe resourcequota
If there is a quota, note these fields (common ones):
requests.cpu
requests.memory
limits.cpu
limits.memory
3) Decide requests/limits for the Deployment (example values)
If the question (in your environment) provides specific values, use those.
If it doesn’t, a typical safe pair is:
requests: cpu: 100m, memory: 128Mi
limits: cpu: 200m, memory: 256Mi
I’ll proceed with these example values. If your lab specifies different numbers, just swap them in.
4) Update the existing Deployment (DO NOT DELETE)
Option A (fastest): kubectl set resources
Assuming the container name is the first container (we’ll detect it):
kubectl -n $NS get deploy nginx-resources -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.containers[*].name}{"\n"}'
If it prints a single container name, set it like this:
kubectl -n $NS set resources deploy nginx-resources \
--requests=cpu=100m,memory=128Mi \
--limits=cpu=200m,memory=256Mi
Verify the Deployment now has resources
kubectl -n $NS get deploy nginx-resources -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].resources}{"\n"}'
5) Compute the total resources requested by the Deployment
Get replicas:
REPLICAS=$(kubectl -n $NS get deploy nginx-resources -o jsonpath='{.spec.replicas}')
echo $REPLICAS
6) Ensure the namespace quota matches (or exceeds) those totals
This is the part the question warns about: if the quota is too low, the Deployment update will fail to roll out.
6.1 If a ResourceQuota already exists
Patch it to allow at least the totals you calculated.
First, identify quota name:
RQ=$(kubectl -n $NS get resourcequota -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
echo $RQ
Then patch (example: replicas=2 → requests.cpu=200m, requests.memory=256Mi):
kubectl -n $NS patch resourcequota $RQ --type='merge' -p '{
"spec": {
"hard": {
"requests.cpu": "200m",
"requests.memory": "256Mi",
"limits.cpu": "400m",
"limits.memory": "512Mi"
}
}
}'
Adjust those numbers to your replicas × request, and replicas × limit (if your quota also enforces limits).
6.2 If there is NO ResourceQuota
Create one that matches the Deployment max request totals.
Example for replicas=2 with our sample requests/limits:
cat <apiVersion: v1
kind: ResourceQuota
metadata:
name: nginx-resources-quota
spec:
hard:
requests.cpu: "200m"
requests.memory: "256Mi"
limits.cpu: "400m"
limits.memory: "512Mi"
EOF
7) Verify rollout succeeds
kubectl -n $NS rollout status deploy nginx-resources
kubectl -n $NS get pods
Verify the running pods actually have the requests/limits:
kubectl -n $NS get pod -l app=nginx-resources -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{" "}{.spec.containers[0].resources}{"\n"}{end}'
(If the label selector app=nginx-resources doesn’t exist, just pick a pod name from kubectl get pods and run:)
kubectl -n $NS describe pod | sed -n '/Limits:/,/Requests:/p'
Common reasons this fails (and the fix)
Rollout stuck / pods pending with “exceeded quota”Check:
kubectl -n $NS describe pod
kubectl -n $NS describe resourcequota
Fix: increase ResourceQuota hard values to match required totals.
kubectl get deploy -A | grep nginx-resources
kubectl -n get deploy nginx-resources -o jsonpath='{.spec.replicas}{"\n"}{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].name}{"\n"}'
kubectl -n describe resourcequota
