descheduler crashes - failed decoding descheduler's policy config "/policy-dir/policy.yaml": strict decoding error: unknown field "podProtections"

[stearz]

What version of descheduler are you using?
descheduler version: Helm Chart version 0.34.0 (image: registry.k8s.io/descheduler/descheduler:v0.34.0)

Does this issue reproduce with the latest release?
As 0.34.0 is latest... - yes.

Which descheduler CLI options are you using?
n/a

Please provide a copy of your descheduler policy config file

apiVersion: "descheduler/v1alpha2"
kind: "DeschedulerPolicy"
profiles:
- name: default
  pluginConfig:
  - args:
      podProtections:
        defaultDisabled:
        - PodsWithLocalStorage
        extraEnabled:
        - PodsWithPVC
    name: DefaultEvictor
  - name: RemoveDuplicates
  - args:
      includingInitContainers: true
      podRestartThreshold: 100
    name: RemovePodsHavingTooManyRestarts
  - args:
      nodeAffinityType:
      - requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution
    name: RemovePodsViolatingNodeAffinity
  - name: RemovePodsViolatingNodeTaints
  - name: RemovePodsViolatingInterPodAntiAffinity
  - name: RemovePodsViolatingTopologySpreadConstraint
  - args:
      targetThresholds:
        cpu: 50
        memory: 50
        pods: 50
      thresholds:
        cpu: 20
        memory: 20
        pods: 20
    name: LowNodeUtilization
  plugins:
    balance:
      enabled:
      - RemoveDuplicates
      - RemovePodsViolatingTopologySpreadConstraint
      - LowNodeUtilization
    deschedule:
      enabled:
      - RemovePodsHavingTooManyRestarts
      - RemovePodsViolatingNodeTaints
      - RemovePodsViolatingNodeAffinity
      - RemovePodsViolatingInterPodAntiAffinity

What k8s version are you using (kubectl version)?
1.34.0

kubectl version Output

$ kubectl version

What did you do?

I installed descheduler via helm from here (https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/descheduler/). My values.yaml only has this set:

schedule: "30 * * * *"

Pod comes up and logs this before it crashes:

I1218 16:53:31.846272       1 feature_gate.go:385] feature gates: {map[]}
I1218 16:53:37.623366       1 secure_serving.go:57] Forcing use of http/1.1 only
I1218 16:53:37.625136       1 named_certificates.go:53] "Loaded SNI cert" index=0 certName="self-signed loopback" certDetail="\"apiserver-loopback-client@1766076817\" [serving] validServingFor=[apiserver-loopback-client] issuer=\"apiserver-loopback-client-ca@1766076812\" (2025-12-18 15:53:31 +0000 UTC to 2028-12-18 15:53:31 +0000 UTC (now=2025-12-18 16:53:37.6249822 +0000 UTC))"
I1218 16:53:37.625355       1 secure_serving.go:211] Serving securely on [::]:10258
I1218 16:53:37.625430       1 tracing.go:87] Did not find a trace collector endpoint defined. Switching to NoopTraceProvider
I1218 16:53:37.626114       1 tlsconfig.go:243] "Starting DynamicServingCertificateController"
I1218 16:53:37.627873       1 envvar.go:172] "Feature gate default state" feature="ClientsAllowCBOR" enabled=false
I1218 16:53:37.627992       1 envvar.go:172] "Feature gate default state" feature="ClientsPreferCBOR" enabled=false
I1218 16:53:37.628013       1 envvar.go:172] "Feature gate default state" feature="InformerResourceVersion" enabled=false
I1218 16:53:37.628028       1 envvar.go:172] "Feature gate default state" feature="InOrderInformers" enabled=true
I1218 16:53:37.628043       1 envvar.go:172] "Feature gate default state" feature="WatchListClient" enabled=false
E1218 16:53:37.633586       1 server.go:73] "failed to run descheduler server" err="failed decoding descheduler's policy config \"/policy-dir/policy.yaml\": strict decoding error: unknown field \"podProtections\""
E1218 16:53:37.633685       1 run.go:72] "command failed" err="failed decoding descheduler's policy config \"/policy-dir/policy.yaml\": strict decoding error: unknown field \"podProtections\""

What did you expect to see?
The pod of the cronjob should run without crashing

What did you see instead?
It crashes with above last words

[ricardomaraschini]

Would you mind clarifying from where you have installed the helm chart ? Your link (https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/descheduler/) seems to be broken somehow. Upon pulling the image you referred and testing with it I could not reproduce the issue.

[baburciu]

I also got the same failure

E0120 16:02:23.516126       1 server.go:73] "failed to run descheduler server" err="failed decoding descheduler's policy config \"/policy-dir/policy.yaml\": strict decoding error: unknown field \"podProtections\""
E0120 16:02:23.516144       1 run.go:72] "command failed" err="failed decoding descheduler's policy config \"/policy-dir/policy.yaml\": strict decoding error: unknown field \"podProtections\""

for helm values

      deschedulerPolicy:
        profiles:
          - name: memory-relief
            pluginConfig:
              - args:
                  podProtections:
                    defaultDisabled:
                    - PodsWithLocalStorage
                name: DefaultEvictor

with latest chart version 0.33.0 as of now (repo tag v0.34.0).
The helm source https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/descheduler/ is the one described in https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/descheduler/blob/master/charts/descheduler/README.md#tldr

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