# Operator 2.19.1 not starting completely

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/operator-2-19-1-not-starting-completely/45644>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** kubernetes, awx, ee\
**Created:** [April 7, 2026, 6:40am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/operator-2-19-1-not-starting-completely/45644 "2026-04-07T06:40:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ildjarn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@ildjarn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ildjarn)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 6:40am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/operator-2-19-1-not-starting-completely/45644/1 "2026-04-07T06:40:06Z")

</div>

Hello,

I did a Kubernetes upgrade today (from 1.34.1 to 1.34.3), and now the operator-controller-manager won’t start completely.

```auto
Events:
  Type Reason Age From Message
  ---- ------ ---- ---- -------
  Normal Scheduled 8m49s default-scheduler Successfully assigned awxtest/awx-operator-controller-manager-687b856498-t5rxf to aks-agentpool2-21415998-vmss00000h
  Normal Pulling 8m48s kubelet Pulling image "quay.io/ansible/awx-operator:2.19.1"
  Normal Pulled 8m14s kubelet Successfully pulled image "quay.io/ansible/awx-operator:2.19.1" in 33.948s (33.948s including waiting). Image size: 203955289 bytes.
  Normal Created 8m12s kubelet Created container: awx-manager
  Normal Started 8m12s kubelet Started container awx-manager
  Normal Pulling 5m22s (x5 over 8m48s) kubelet Pulling image "gcr.io/kubebuilder/kube-rbac-proxy:v0.15.0"
  Warning Failed 5m22s (x5 over 8m48s) kubelet Failed to pull image "gcr.io/kubebuilder/kube-rbac-proxy:v0.15.0": rpc error: code = NotFound desc = failed to pull and unpack image "gcr.io/kubebuilder/kube-rbac-proxy:v0.15.0": failed to resolve reference "gcr.io/kubebuilder/kube-rbac-proxy:v0.15.0": gcr.io/kubebuilder/kube-rbac-proxy:v0.15.0: not found
  Warning Failed 5m22s (x5 over 8m48s) kubelet Error: ErrImagePull
  Normal BackOff 3m45s (x18 over 8m11s) kubelet Back-off pulling image "gcr.io/kubebuilder/kube-rbac-proxy:v0.15.0"
  Warning Failed 3m45s (x18 over 8m11s) kubelet Error: ImagePullBackOff

```

Is this a temporary problem on the side of [gcr.io](http://gcr.io) or is this version of kube-rbac-proxy no longer supported?

And what are the exact consequences if this proxy can’t start? The web and task pods are running, automation-job pods are created when running a job, and as far as I can see everything seems to work fine.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kurokobo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/kurokobo/32/182_2.png) [@kurokobo](https://forum.ansible.com/u/kurokobo)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 8:31am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/operator-2-19-1-not-starting-completely/45644/2 "2026-04-07T08:31:24Z")

</div>

@ildjarn  
Hi,

> [@ildjarn](#):
>
> Is this a temporary problem on the side of [gcr.io](http://gcr.io) or is this version of kube-rbac-proxy no longer supported?

The `kube-rbac-proxy` image on `gcr.io` has already been discontinued, so you should replace it with the drop-in replacement from another registry, such as `quay.io/brancz/kube-rbac-proxy`.  
I don’t know how you’ve deployed your AWX Operator, but if you’ve used `kustomization.yaml`, adding the following to your configuration may solve the issue:

```yaml
images:
  - name: quay.io/ansible/awx-operator
    newTag: 2.19.1
  - name: gcr.io/kubebuilder/kube-rbac-proxy 👈👈👈
    newName: quay.io/brancz/kube-rbac-proxy 👈👈👈

```

> [@ildjarn](#):
>
> And what are the exact consequences if this proxy can’t start? The web and task pods are running, automation-job pods are created when running a job, and as far as I can see everything seems to work fine.

This proxy provides RBAC for the `/metrics` endpoint of the AWX Operator.  
In other words, if you don’t use any Prometheus in the same cluster to gather metrics from the AWX Operator (not from AWX itself), this proxy is not used in your environment.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ildjarn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@ildjarn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ildjarn)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2026, 5:35am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/operator-2-19-1-not-starting-completely/45644/3 "2026-04-08T05:35:23Z")

</div>

Yes, thank you, adding those two lines to my kustomization.yaml worked.  
If I don’t use metrics, is there a way to completely disable the proxy?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kurokobo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/kurokobo/32/182_2.png) [@kurokobo](https://forum.ansible.com/u/kurokobo)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2026, 1:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/operator-2-19-1-not-starting-completely/45644/4 "2026-04-08T13:03:20Z")

</div>

@ildjarn

> [@ildjarn](#):
>
> If I don’t use metrics, is there a way to completely disable the proxy?

You can 🙂

```yaml
...
resources:
  - github.com/ansible/awx-operator/config/default?ref=2.19.1

images:
  - name: quay.io/ansible/awx-operator
    newTag: 2.19.1
  # 👇👇👇 These lines are no longer required; you can comment (or wipe) them out.
  # - name: gcr.io/kubebuilder/kube-rbac-proxy
  # newName: quay.io/brancz/kube-rbac-proxy

# 👇👇👇 Instead, add following patch
patches:
  - target:
      kind: Deployment
      name: awx-operator-controller-manager
    patch: |-
      apiVersion: apps/v1
      kind: Deployment
      metadata:
        name: awx-operator-controller-manager
      spec:
        template:
          spec:
            containers:
            - name: kube-rbac-proxy
              $patch: delete

```

The above patch modifies the AWX Operator’s Pod so that `kube-rbac-proxy` container is not included.  
Strictly speaking, after applying this, the following resources also become unnecessary and can be deleted:

```bash
kubectl -n awx delete \
  service/awx-operator-controller-manager-metrics-service

kubectl delete \
  clusterrole/awx-operator-proxy-role \
  clusterrole/awx-operator-metrics-reader \
  clusterrolebinding/awx-operator-proxy-rolebinding

```

If you’re concerned that these deleted four resources might come back when you redeploy the `kustomization.yaml` for the Operator, you can make the patch more comprehensive.  
It would get a bit lengthy though 😛

> **Complete patch (Click to expand)**
>
> ```yaml
> patches:
> - target:
> kind: Deployment
> name: awx-operator-controller-manager
> patch: |-
> apiVersion: apps/v1
> kind: Deployment
> metadata:
> name: awx-operator-controller-manager
> spec:
> template:
> spec:
> containers:
> - name: kube-rbac-proxy
> $patch: delete
> - target:
> kind: Service
> name: awx-operator-controller-manager-metrics-service
> patch: |-
> $patch: delete
> apiVersion: v1
> kind: Service
> metadata:
> name: awx-operator-controller-manager-metrics-service
> - target:
> kind: ClusterRole
> name: awx-operator-proxy-role
> patch: |-
> $patch: delete
> apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
> kind: ClusterRole
> metadata:
> name: awx-operator-proxy-role
> - target:
> kind: ClusterRole
> name: awx-operator-metrics-reader
> patch: |-
> $patch: delete
> apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
> kind: ClusterRole
> metadata:
> name: awx-operator-metrics-reader
> - target:
> kind: ClusterRoleBinding
> name: awx-operator-proxy-rolebinding
> patch: |-
> $patch: delete
> apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
> kind: ClusterRoleBinding
> metadata:
> name: awx-operator-proxy-rolebinding
> 
> ```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2026, 1:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/operator-2-19-1-not-starting-completely/45644/5 "2026-05-08T13:04:10Z")

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