Why is the namespace where my storage operator was deployed stuck in Terminating status?

When you remove a storage configuration from a cluster, the resources such as operator pods and storage classes are removed, but the namespace is stuck in Terminating status.

Finalizers are preventing the remaining resources in the namespace and the namespace itself from being deleted.

Take the following steps to remove the resources and the namespace.

Do not delete or patch the resource finalizers in the kube-system namespace.

1. Get the namespace that is stuck in Terminating status. Make a note of the resources that are listed in the message: 'Some resources are remaining: section.

   oc get ns <namespace> -o yaml
   

   Example output for a NetApp Trident namespace

   status:
       conditions:
       - lastTransitionTime: "2021-05-18T17:40:31Z"
       message: All resources successfully discovered
       reason: ResourcesDiscovered
       status: "False"
       type: NamespaceDeletionDiscoveryFailure
       - lastTransitionTime: "2021-05-18T17:40:31Z"
       message: All legacy kube types successfully parsed
       reason: ParsedGroupVersions
       status: "False"
       type: NamespaceDeletionGroupVersionParsingFailure
       - lastTransitionTime: "2021-05-18T17:40:31Z"
       message: All content successfully deleted, may be waiting on finalization
       reason: ContentDeleted
       status: "False"
       type: NamespaceDeletionContentFailure
       - lastTransitionTime: "2021-05-18T17:40:31Z"
       message: 'Some resources are remaining: tridentbackends.trident.netapp.io has 1 resource instances, tridentnodes.trident.netapp.io has 3 resource instances, tridentversions.trident.netapp.io has 1 resource instances, tridentvolumes.trident.netapp.io has 1 resource instances'
       reason: SomeResourcesRemain
       status: "True"
       type: NamespaceContentRemaining
       - lastTransitionTime: "2021-05-18T17:40:31Z"
       message: 'Some content in the namespace has finalizers remaining: trident.netapp.io
       in 6 resource instances'
       reason: SomeFinalizersRemain
       status: "True"
       type: NamespaceFinalizersRemaining
       phase: Terminating
   

2. Run the oc get command to get the resources that are pending removal. In the example output, the tridentbackends.trident.netapp.io resource lists 1 resource instance. Repeat this step for each resource that lists instances in the message section of the namespace YAML that you retrieved earlier.

   oc get <resource> -n <namespace>
   

   Example command for the tridentbackends.trident.netapp.io resource.

   oc get tridentbackends.trident.netapp.io -n trident
   

   Example output

   tbe-bhb5r
   

   pvc-26d97ecd-c268-47ff-a2fd-a0a1a51a9e12
   

3. For each resource that lists instances, run the following kubectl patch command to remove the finalizers and delete the resource. After all the resources are patched, the namespace is removed.

   kubectl -n <namespace> patch <resource>/<instance> -p '{"metadata":{"finalizers":[]}}' --type=merge
   

   Example command for the tridentbackends.trident.netapp.io resource.

   kubectl -n trident patch tridentbackends.trident.netapp.io/tbe-bhb5r -p '{"metadata":{"finalizers":[]}}' --type=merge
   

4. After you remove the finalizers on the remaining resources, run the oc get ns command to verify that the namespace is removed.

   oc get ns