Zombie pods are created when resources are not sufficient for secluding pods and idleMinutes is set to a non-zero value.

This causes multiple pods to be launched from one pod template where one of the pods is in a zombie state and one is active. As the zombie pods accumulate, there are no resources left over to schedule actual pods.

WAR: set up a cron job to delete pods in error state or set idleMinutes to 0.