How to Blow up a Kubernetes Cluster - Felix Hoffmann, iteratec
Channel: CNCF [Cloud Native Computing Foundation]
Date: 01/05/2023

How to Blow up a Kubernetes Cluster - Felix Hoffmann, iteratec

Last year, Felix was handed a Kubernetes cluster and he was told that some pods are using too much memory. He didn't have a single clue about Kubernetes but quickly figured out that pods can be tamed by setting resource limits. Felix went and set limits—and watched the entire cluster go haywire. Half of the pods were stuck in a crash loop, the other half were forever "pending". On first sight, resource request and limit seem straightforward: A request is a lower bound for CPU or memory; a limit is an upper bound for CPU or memory. Once demand becomes higher than supply though, it is imperative to know how Kubernetes handles scarce resources. How do these settings influence scheduling? Which pod gets terminated first? Felix learned these things the hard way. He is giving this talk so you don't have to repeat his mistakes.