How to debug "ImagePullBackOff"?

You can use the 'describe pod' syntax

For OpenShift use:

oc describe pod <pod-id>  

For vanilla Kubernetes:

kubectl describe pod <pod-id>  

Examine the events of the output. In my case it shows Back-off pulling image coredns/coredns:latest

In this case the image coredns/coredns:latest can not be pulled from the Internet.

Events:
  FirstSeen LastSeen    Count   From                SubObjectPath           Type        Reason      Message
  --------- --------    -----   ----                -------------           --------    ------      -------
  5m        5m      1   {default-scheduler }                        Normal      Scheduled   Successfully assigned coredns-4224169331-9nhxj to 192.168.122.190
  5m        1m      4   {kubelet 192.168.122.190}   spec.containers{coredns}    Normal      Pulling     pulling image "coredns/coredns:latest"
  4m        26s     4   {kubelet 192.168.122.190}   spec.containers{coredns}    Warning     Failed      Failed to pull image "coredns/coredns:latest": Network timed out while trying to connect to https://index.docker.io/v1/repositories/coredns/coredns/images. You may want to check your internet connection or if you are behind a proxy.
  4m        26s     4   {kubelet 192.168.122.190}                   Warning     FailedSync  Error syncing pod, skipping: failed to "StartContainer" for "coredns" with ErrImagePull: "Network timed out while trying to connect to https://index.docker.io/v1/repositories/coredns/coredns/images. You may want to check your Internet connection or if you are behind a proxy."

  4m    2s  7   {kubelet 192.168.122.190}   spec.containers{coredns}    Normal  BackOff     Back-off pulling image "coredns/coredns:latest"
  4m    2s  7   {kubelet 192.168.122.190}                   Warning FailedSync  Error syncing pod, skipping: failed to "StartContainer" for "coredns" with ImagePullBackOff: "Back-off pulling image \"coredns/coredns:latest\""

Additional debuging steps

1. try to pull the docker image and tag manually on your computer
2. Identify the node by doing a 'kubectl/oc get pods -o wide'
3. ssh into the node (if you can) that can not pull the docker image
4. check that the node can resolve the DNS of the docker registry by performing a ping.
5. try to pull the docker image manually on the node
6. If you are using a private registry, check that your secret exists and the secret is correct. Your secret should also be in the same namespace. Thanks swenzel
7. Some registries have firewalls that limit ip address access. The firewall may block the pull
8. Some CIs create deployments with temporary docker secrets. So the secret expires after a few days (You are asking for production failures...)

Have you tried to edit to see what's wrong (I had the wrong image location)

kubectl edit pods arix-3-yjq9w

or even delete your pod?

kubectl delete arix-3-yjq9w