In Kubernetes, how can I scale a Deployment to zero when idle
May 4
I'm running a fairly resource-intensive service on a Kubernetes cluster to support CI activities. Only a single replica is needed, but it uses a lot of resources (16 cpu), and it's only needed during work hours generally (weekdays, 8am-6pm roughly). My cluster runs in a cloud and is setup with instance autoscaling, so if this service is scaled to zero, that instance can be terminated.
The service is third-party code that cannot be modified (well, not easily). It's a fairly typical HTTP service other than that its work is fairly CPU intensive.
What options exist to automatically scale this Deployment down to zero when idle?
I'd rather not setup a schedule to scale it up/down during working hours because occasionally CI activities are performed outside of the normal hours. I'd like the scaling to be dynamic (for example, scale to zero when idle for >30 minutes, or scale to one when an incoming connection arrives).
kubernetes1 answer
Accepted answer · original discussion
Jun 23
I ended up implementing a custom solution: https://github.com/greenkeytech/zero-pod-autoscaler
Compared to Knative, it's more of a "toy" project, fairly small, and has no dependency on istio. It's been working well for my use case, though I do not recommend others use it without being willing to adopt the code as your own.
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