Check the logs for the cancellation message
If a replacement is blocked, you may see a message similar to this:
DEBUG, Replacement of type Out of strategy for instance has been canceled. Reason for cancellation: A pod with the restrict-scale-down label is currently running on the node.

Look for scale‑down protection labels
Even if you don’t use the restrict-scale-down label, you may still have pods protected from eviction. The following label behaves the same way and prevents the node from being replaced:

• cluster-autoscaler.kubernetes.io/safe-to-evict (when set to false)
  
  

Review labels and annotations on pods and virtual node groups
Make sure no labels or annotations are unintentionally preventing scale‑down activity on:

• Pods

• Virtual node groups

• Workload controllers that apply pod templates

If a protected pod runs on the node, Ocean cannot replace it.