Cluster Autoscaler: Consolidation Tuning

autoscalingPolicy (ComputeClass)

Overrides cluster-wide profile defaults for class-managed nodes.

spec:
  autoscalingPolicy:
    consolidationDelayMinutes: 5     # Floor = 1 min
    consolidationThreshold: 0        # % CPU util (0 = always candidate)
    gpuConsolidationThreshold: 0     # Accelerator counterpart

Tuning by Workload

• Serving: 5–15 min delay; default threshold. Prevents "thrashing" on traffic spikes.
• Batch: 1–2 min delay; 0 threshold. Aggressive cost recovery.
• Stateful: 10+ min delay. Pair with PDBs to control churn.

Disruption Constraints

Consolidation respects:

• PodDisruptionBudgets (PDB): Node is skipped if eviction breaches maxUnavailable.
• safe-to-evict: "false": Annotation pins the node indefinitely.

Note: Maintenance windows do NOT block consolidation. Use PDBs for time-windowed suppression.