> Kubernetes Auto-Scaling: Best Practices

Kubernetes offers multiple auto-scaling mechanisms to ensure your applications can handle varying loads efficiently while optimizing resource costs.

Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA)

HPA automatically scales the number of pod replicas based on CPU utilization, memory usage, or custom metrics:

apiVersion: autoscaling/v2
kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler
metadata:
  name: app-hpa
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
    name: app-deployment
  minReplicas: 2
  maxReplicas: 10
  metrics:
  - type: Resource
    resource:
      name: cpu
      target:
        type: Utilization
        averageUtilization: 70

Cluster Autoscaler

Automatically adjust cluster size by adding or removing nodes based on resource requirements. Essential for cost optimization in cloud environments.