Optimize GKE Operations with Ocean’s Granular Scale-Down Control

In the world of Kubernetes, scale-down operations are crucial for optimizing resource usage and reducing costs. The scale-down process involves identifying underutilized nodes and efficiently bin-packing the pods to minimize the number of nodes required.

Without a Kubernetes scale-down process, suboptimal use of resources can culminate in avoidable costs and operational inefficiencies. The complexity of this challenge is amplified by the diverse array of resources required for cloud operations, including dealing with fluctuating traffic, executing batch processing tasks, maintaining CI/CD workflows, and providing resources for development and testing scenarios. Management of dormant resources is another common obstacle, where instances remain underutilized and result in squandered resources and inflated cloud bills.

To address the challenges with Kubernetes resource management, Spot Ocean allows setting the percentage of nodes that can be scaled down at once in a single optimization event. Setting this at the cluster level impacts all workloads equally. However, different workloads may require different scale-down behaviors.

The limitation of setting the maxScaleDownPercentage at the cluster level poses a challenge for workloads with varying scale-down requirements. For example, for Spark batch jobs, you’d want the nodes to scale down as quickly as possible once the job is finished. However, for other applications in the cluster, you might want a more gradual scale-down to ensure service continuity and avoid abrupt disruptions. Unfortunately, having a single, cluster-wide setting for maxScaleDownPercentage did not always provide the flexibility needed to cater to these differing requirements.

Better optimization with scale-down granularity

To address this challenge, Spot Ocean on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) allows you to set the max scale down percentage at the Virtual Node Group (VNG) level. This provides granular control over scale-down operations within your clusters, allowing you to define different scale-down behaviors for different VNGs based on your workloads’ specific needs. With this feature, you can now set the maxScaleDownPercentage parameter to a VNG level. Once it’s set at the VNG level, it cannot be set at the cluster level to avoid any conflicts. If a VNG does not have this configuration set, a default value is used, providing a clear hierarchy and easy management.

This feature currently can be configured via the API, and future updates will include UI support, allowing you to directly configure the max scale down percentage at the VNG level from the UI.

Take control of your scale-down operations

Efficient resource management is key to cost savings and operational efficiency in your Kubernetes environment. With the ability to set the max scale down percentage at the VNG level, you have more control over your resource management, paving the way for optimized operations and reduced costs.

Start optimizing your resource management today with Ocean for GKE

Ready to experience this level of control and flexibility in your GKE operations? Test it out yourself! Learn more about Ocean to get started. Dive into the details with our updated API documentation and explore the possibilities of max scale down percentage at the VNG level. Remember, we’re here to assist you every step of the way.