# userPlaceholder pods stuck Pending in zero-to-jupyterhub v0.8.2

**URL:** https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/userplaceholder-pods-stuck-pending-in-zero-to-jupyterhub-v0-8-2/3874
**Category:** JupyterHub
**Created:** [April 3, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/userplaceholder-pods-stuck-pending-in-zero-to-jupyterhub-v0-8-2/3874 "2020-04-03T19:57:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mattwelborn](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/mattwelborn/32/1896_2.png) [@mattwelborn](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/mattwelborn)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/userplaceholder-pods-stuck-pending-in-zero-to-jupyterhub-v0-8-2/3874/1 "2020-04-03T19:57:20Z")

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I am trying to configure zero-to-jupyterhub v0.8.2 on DigitalOcean to use placeholder pods to have some idle capacity available to users. (Currently autoscaling takes 5-10 minutes to create a new node.) However, when I enable this feature (config below), the placeholder pods are always in the pending state and any new user pods get stuck in the pending state; the autoscaler is not triggered.

I have tried the following configurations:

```
scheduling:
  podPriority:
    enabled: true
    globalDefault: true
    defaultPriority: 10
    userPlaceholderPriority: 0
  userPlaceholder:
    enabled: true
    replicas: 3
  userScheduler:
    enabled: true

```

and

```
scheduling:
  podPriority:
    enabled: true
    globalDefault: false
    defaultPriority: 0
    userPlaceholderPriority: -10
  userPlaceholder:
    enabled: true
    replicas: 3
  userScheduler:
    enabled: true
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mattwelborn](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/mattwelborn/32/1896_2.png) [@mattwelborn](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/mattwelborn)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2020, 8:17pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/userplaceholder-pods-stuck-pending-in-zero-to-jupyterhub-v0-8-2/3874/2 "2020-04-03T20:17:55Z")

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removing the following seems to have fixed it

userScheduler:  
enabled: true

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![consideRatio](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/consideratio/32/1033_2.png) [@consideRatio](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/consideRatio)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/userplaceholder-pods-stuck-pending-in-zero-to-jupyterhub-v0-8-2/3874/3 "2020-04-03T20:30:34Z")

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I guess you may be using a quite modern version of k8s, like 1.16+? I think it would work if you upgrade to 0.9.0-beta.4

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![mattwelborn](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/mattwelborn/32/1896_2.png) [@mattwelborn](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/mattwelborn)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/userplaceholder-pods-stuck-pending-in-zero-to-jupyterhub-v0-8-2/3874/4 "2020-04-03T21:03:42Z")

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Thanks, I am indeed using k8s v1.16 and upgrading to 0.9.0-beta.4 seems to have solved my issue. Do you happen to known when 0.9.0 will be released?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![consideRatio](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/consideratio/32/1033_2.png) [@consideRatio](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/consideRatio)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2020, 9:08pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/userplaceholder-pods-stuck-pending-in-zero-to-jupyterhub-v0-8-2/3874/5 "2020-04-03T21:08:40Z")

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😉 I’ve told soon for a very long time. I’ve been a bit afraid of the burst of responsibility I would feel to ensure people do okay in the official transition without being certain I have time available to help out.

@mattwelborn I’ll make a push towards it tomorrow, now is a good time.