diff --git a/airflow/exceptions.py b/airflow/exceptions.py
index 2f1e53e182a10..1f30ef525f82d 100644
--- a/airflow/exceptions.py
+++ b/airflow/exceptions.py
@@ -306,3 +306,7 @@ def __repr__(self) -> str:
 
 class TaskDeferralError(AirflowException):
     """Raised when a task failed during deferral for some reason."""
+
+
+class PodReconciliationError(AirflowException):
+    """Raised when an error is encountered while trying to merge pod configs."""
diff --git a/airflow/executors/kubernetes_executor.py b/airflow/executors/kubernetes_executor.py
index c76cf58f418d4..e510da2b314d6 100644
--- a/airflow/executors/kubernetes_executor.py
+++ b/airflow/executors/kubernetes_executor.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 from kubernetes.client.rest import ApiException
 from urllib3.exceptions import ReadTimeoutError
 
-from airflow.exceptions import AirflowException
+from airflow.exceptions import AirflowException, PodReconciliationError
 from airflow.executors.base_executor import NOT_STARTED_MESSAGE, BaseExecutor, CommandType
 from airflow.kubernetes import pod_generator
 from airflow.kubernetes.kube_client import get_kube_client
@@ -300,8 +300,9 @@ def run_next(self, next_job: KubernetesJobType) -> None:
         and store relevant info in the current_jobs map so we can track the job's
         status
         """
-        self.log.info('Kubernetes job is %s', str(next_job).replace("\n", " "))
         key, command, kube_executor_config, pod_template_file = next_job
+        self.log.info('Kubernetes job is %s', key)
+
         dag_id, task_id, run_id, try_number, map_index = key
 
         if command[0:3] != ["airflow", "tasks", "run"]:
@@ -617,6 +618,13 @@ def sync(self) -> None:
                 task = self.task_queue.get_nowait()
                 try:
                     self.kube_scheduler.run_next(task)
+                except PodReconciliationError as e:
+                    self.log.error(
+                        "Pod reconciliation failed, likely due to kubernetes library upgrade. "
+                        "Try clearing the task to re-run.",
+                        exc_info=True,
+                    )
+                    self.fail(task[0], e)
                 except ApiException as e:
 
                     # These codes indicate something is wrong with pod definition; otherwise we assume pod
diff --git a/airflow/kubernetes/pod_generator.py b/airflow/kubernetes/pod_generator.py
index 52b45801ccabc..8a86919a65b75 100644
--- a/airflow/kubernetes/pod_generator.py
+++ b/airflow/kubernetes/pod_generator.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 from kubernetes.client import models as k8s
 from kubernetes.client.api_client import ApiClient
 
-from airflow.exceptions import AirflowConfigException
+from airflow.exceptions import AirflowConfigException, PodReconciliationError
 from airflow.kubernetes.pod_generator_deprecated import PodDefaults, PodGenerator as PodGeneratorDeprecated
 from airflow.utils import yaml
 from airflow.version import version as airflow_version
@@ -389,7 +389,10 @@ def construct_pod(
         # Pod from the pod_template_File -> Pod from executor_config arg -> Pod from the K8s executor
         pod_list = [base_worker_pod, pod_override_object, dynamic_pod]
 
-        return reduce(PodGenerator.reconcile_pods, pod_list)
+        try:
+            return reduce(PodGenerator.reconcile_pods, pod_list)
+        except Exception as e:
+            raise PodReconciliationError from e
 
     @staticmethod
     def serialize_pod(pod: k8s.V1Pod) -> dict:
diff --git a/airflow/models/taskinstance.py b/airflow/models/taskinstance.py
index 0f5d49b819762..7685a53764a12 100644
--- a/airflow/models/taskinstance.py
+++ b/airflow/models/taskinstance.py
@@ -400,6 +400,20 @@ def key(self) -> "TaskInstanceKey":
         return self
 
 
+def _executor_config_comparator(x, y):
+    """
+    The TaskInstance.executor_config attribute is a pickled object that may contain
+    kubernetes objects.  If the installed library version has changed since the
+    object was originally pickled, due to the underlying ``__eq__`` method on these
+    objects (which converts them to JSON), we may encounter attribute errors. In this
+    case we should replace the stored object.
+    """
+    try:
+        return x == y
+    except AttributeError:
+        return False
+
+
 class TaskInstance(Base, LoggingMixin):
     """
     Task instances store the state of a task instance. This table is the
@@ -442,7 +456,7 @@ class TaskInstance(Base, LoggingMixin):
     queued_dttm = Column(UtcDateTime)
     queued_by_job_id = Column(Integer)
     pid = Column(Integer)
-    executor_config = Column(PickleType(pickler=dill))
+    executor_config = Column(PickleType(pickler=dill, comparator=_executor_config_comparator))
 
     external_executor_id = Column(String(ID_LEN, **COLLATION_ARGS))
 
diff --git a/tests/executors/test_kubernetes_executor.py b/tests/executors/test_kubernetes_executor.py
index 954f4f06001db..8ffeb5624b8cc 100644
--- a/tests/executors/test_kubernetes_executor.py
+++ b/tests/executors/test_kubernetes_executor.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 from urllib3 import HTTPResponse
 
 from airflow import AirflowException
+from airflow.exceptions import PodReconciliationError
 from airflow.models.taskinstance import TaskInstanceKey
 from airflow.operators.bash import BashOperator
 from airflow.utils import timezone
@@ -272,6 +273,44 @@ def test_run_next_exception_requeue(
                 assert kubernetes_executor.task_queue.empty()
                 assert kubernetes_executor.event_buffer[task_instance_key][0] == State.FAILED
 
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(
+        AirflowKubernetesScheduler is None, reason='kubernetes python package is not installed'
+    )
+    @mock.patch('airflow.executors.kubernetes_executor.KubernetesJobWatcher')
+    @mock.patch('airflow.executors.kubernetes_executor.get_kube_client')
+    def test_run_next_pod_reconciliation_error(self, mock_get_kube_client, mock_kubernetes_job_watcher):
+        """
+        When construct_pod raises PodReconciliationError, we should fail the task.
+        """
+        import sys
+
+        path = sys.path[0] + '/tests/kubernetes/pod_generator_base_with_secrets.yaml'
+
+        mock_kube_client = mock.patch('kubernetes.client.CoreV1Api', autospec=True)
+        fail_msg = 'test message'
+        mock_kube_client.create_namespaced_pod = mock.MagicMock(side_effect=PodReconciliationError(fail_msg))
+        mock_get_kube_client.return_value = mock_kube_client
+        mock_api_client = mock.MagicMock()
+        mock_api_client.sanitize_for_serialization.return_value = {}
+        mock_kube_client.api_client = mock_api_client
+        config = {('kubernetes', 'pod_template_file'): path}
+        with conf_vars(config):
+            kubernetes_executor = self.kubernetes_executor
+            kubernetes_executor.start()
+            # Execute a task while the Api Throws errors
+            try_number = 1
+            task_instance_key = TaskInstanceKey('dag', 'task', 'run_id', try_number)
+            kubernetes_executor.execute_async(
+                key=task_instance_key,
+                queue=None,
+                command=['airflow', 'tasks', 'run', 'true', 'some_parameter'],
+            )
+            kubernetes_executor.sync()
+
+            assert kubernetes_executor.task_queue.empty()
+            assert kubernetes_executor.event_buffer[task_instance_key][0] == State.FAILED
+            assert kubernetes_executor.event_buffer[task_instance_key][1].args[0] == fail_msg
+
     @mock.patch('airflow.executors.kubernetes_executor.KubeConfig')
     @mock.patch('airflow.executors.kubernetes_executor.KubernetesExecutor.sync')
     @mock.patch('airflow.executors.base_executor.BaseExecutor.trigger_tasks')
diff --git a/tests/kubernetes/test_pod_generator.py b/tests/kubernetes/test_pod_generator.py
index d220872187cb1..df5efb0d06c9f 100644
--- a/tests/kubernetes/test_pod_generator.py
+++ b/tests/kubernetes/test_pod_generator.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 import sys
 import uuid
 from unittest import mock
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock
 
 import pytest
 from dateutil import parser
@@ -26,7 +27,7 @@
 from parameterized import parameterized
 
 from airflow import __version__
-from airflow.exceptions import AirflowConfigException
+from airflow.exceptions import AirflowConfigException, PodReconciliationError
 from airflow.kubernetes.pod_generator import (
     PodDefaults,
     PodGenerator,
@@ -520,6 +521,33 @@ def test_construct_pod_empty_executor_config(self, mock_uuid):
         worker_config_result = self.k8s_client.sanitize_for_serialization(worker_config)
         assert worker_config_result == sanitized_result
 
+    @mock.patch('uuid.uuid4')
+    def test_construct_pod_attribute_error(self, mock_uuid):
+        """
+        After upgrading k8s library we might get attribute error.
+        In this case it should raise PodReconciliationError
+        """
+        path = sys.path[0] + '/tests/kubernetes/pod_generator_base_with_secrets.yaml'
+        worker_config = PodGenerator.deserialize_model_file(path)
+        mock_uuid.return_value = self.static_uuid
+        executor_config = MagicMock()
+        executor_config.side_effect = AttributeError('error')
+
+        with pytest.raises(PodReconciliationError):
+            PodGenerator.construct_pod(
+                dag_id='dag_id',
+                task_id='task_id',
+                pod_id='pod_id',
+                kube_image='test-image',
+                try_number=3,
+                date=self.execution_date,
+                args=['command'],
+                pod_override_object=executor_config,
+                base_worker_pod=worker_config,
+                namespace='namespace',
+                scheduler_job_id='uuid',
+            )
+
     @mock.patch('uuid.uuid4')
     def test_ensure_max_label_length(self, mock_uuid):
         mock_uuid.return_value = self.static_uuid
diff --git a/tests/models/test_taskinstance.py b/tests/models/test_taskinstance.py
index a1d180fa1ee56..1b17ccc773c05 100644
--- a/tests/models/test_taskinstance.py
+++ b/tests/models/test_taskinstance.py
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@
 )
 from airflow.models.serialized_dag import SerializedDagModel
 from airflow.models.taskfail import TaskFail
-from airflow.models.taskinstance import TaskInstance
+from airflow.models.taskinstance import TaskInstance, _executor_config_comparator
 from airflow.models.taskmap import TaskMap
 from airflow.models.xcom import XCOM_RETURN_KEY
 from airflow.operators.bash import BashOperator
@@ -2859,3 +2859,22 @@ def get_extra_env():
 
     echo_task = dag.get_task("echo")
     assert "get_extra_env" in echo_task.upstream_task_ids
+
+
+def test_executor_config_comparator():
+    """
+    When comparison raises AttributeError, return False.
+    This can happen when executor config contains kubernetes objects pickled
+    under older kubernetes library version.
+    """
+
+    class MockAttrError:
+        def __eq__(self, other):
+            raise AttributeError('hello')
+
+    a = MockAttrError()
+    with pytest.raises(AttributeError):
+        # just verify for ourselves that this throws
+        assert a == a
+    assert _executor_config_comparator(a, a) is False
+    assert _executor_config_comparator('a', 'a') is True