Adding and managing node pools

This page shows you how to add and perform operations on node pools running your Google Kubernetes Engine clusters. To learn about how node pools work, refer to Node Pools.

Before you begin

To prepare for this task, perform the following steps:

• Ensure that you have enabled the Google Kubernetes Engine API.
Enable Google Kubernetes Engine API
• Ensure that you have installed the Cloud SDK.
• Set your default project ID:

  gcloud config set project [PROJECT_ID]

• If you are working with zonal clusters, set your default compute zone:

  gcloud config set compute/zone [COMPUTE_ZONE]

• If you are working with regional clusters, set your default compute region:

  gcloud config set compute/region [COMPUTE_REGION]

• Update gcloud to the latest version:

  gcloud components update

Note: You can override these default settings in gcloud commands using the --project, --zone, and --region operational flags.

Note: OS Login is not fully compatible with GKE v1.10.x and higher. OS Login is explicitly disabled on GKE nodes, even if it is enabled on the GCP project.

Adding a node pool

gcloud

To create a node pool, run the following command:

gcloud container node-pools create [POOL_NAME] --cluster [CLUSTER_NAME]

Additional operational flags

Below are some optional flags that you can specify:

• --machine-type: The Compute Engine machine type (such as n1-standard-1) to use for instances in the node pool. If unspecified, the default machine type is n1-standard-1. Refer to gcloud container node-pools create --machine-type for information on specifying machine types.
• --num-nodes: Specifies the number of nodes to create in the node pool. Default is 3. Your project must have enough quota available for the number of nodes, as well as sufficient route quota.
• --disk-size: Size in GB for node VM boot disks. Defaults to 100GB.

• --image-type: The image type to use for the node pool. Image type specifies the base OS to run on nodes in the node pool. If an image type is specified, that is assigned to the node pool and all future upgrades use the specified image type. If it is not specified, the server chooses the default image type.

  The default image type and the list of valid image types are available using the following command:

  gcloud container get-server-config

• --min-cpu-platform: The baseline minimum CPU platform to run on the nodes.

• --scopes SCOPE,[SCOPE,...]: Specifies scopes for the node instances. For example:

  <pre class="devsite-click-to-copy" translate="no">gcloud container node-pools create example-cluster \
      --scopes https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_only</pre>
  
  <pre class="devsite-click-to-copy" translate="no">gcloud container node-pools create example-cluster \
      --scopes bigquery,storage-rw,compute-ro</pre>
  

  Multiple comma-delimited scopes can be specified. The scopes necessary for the cluster to function properly (compute-rw, storage-ro), are always added, even if not explicitly specified.

  SCOPE can be either the full URI of the scope or an alias.

  Available scopes

  The following scopes are available:

  Alias	URI
  bigquery	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/bigquery
  cloud-platform	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform
  compute-ro	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/compute.readonly
  compute-rw	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/compute
  datastore	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/datastore
  logging-write	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/logging.write
  monitoring	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/monitoring
  monitoring-write	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/monitoring.write
  service-control	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/servicecontrol
  service-management	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/service.management.readonly
  sql	https://www.googleapis.com/discovery/v1/apis/sqladmin/v1beta4/rest
  sql-admin	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/sqlservice.admin
  storage-full	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.full_control
  storage-ro	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_only
  storage-rw	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/devstorage.read_write
  taskqueue	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/taskqueue
  useraccounts-ro	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud.useraccounts.readonly
  useraccounts-rw	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud.useraccounts
  userinfo-email	https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email

For the full list of options, refer to the gcloud container node-pools create documentation.

A successful node-pools create request returns the node pool information:

Creating node pool example-pool...done.
Created [https://container.googleapis.com/v1/projects/kubernetes-engine-docs/zones/us-central1-f/clusters/example-cluster/nodePools/example-pool].
NAME          MACHINE_TYPE   DISK_SIZE_GB  NODE_VERSION
example-pool  n1-standard-1  100           1.2.4

The node pool is created. Occasionally, the node pool is created successfully, but the gcloud command times out instead of reporting the status from the server. To check the status of all node pools, including ones not yet fully provisioned, use the following command:

gcloud container node-pools list --cluster [ClUSTER-NAME]

Console

To add a node pool to an existing cluster, perform the following steps:

1. Visit the Google Kubernetes Engine menu in GCP Console.

   Visit the Google Kubernetes Engine menu

2. Click the cluster's Edit button, which looks like a pencil.

3. In the Node Pools section, click Add node pool.

4. Configure your node pool as desired.

5. Click Done to close the Add node pool overlay.

6. Click Save to modify the cluster.

Viewing node pools in a cluster

gcloud

To list all the node pools of a cluster, run the gcloud node-pools list command:

gcloud container node-pools list --cluster [CLUSTER_NAME]

To view details about a specific node pool, run the gcloud node-pools describe command:

gcloud container node-pools describe [POOL_NAME] \
    --cluster [CLUSTER_NAME]

Console

To view a cluster's node pools, perform the following steps:

1. Visit the Google Kubernetes Engine menu in GCP Console.

   Visit the Google Kubernetes Engine menu

2. Click the name of the cluster you want to view.

3. In the Node Pools section, click the disclosure icon beside the desired node pool. The menu expands to display details about the node pool.

4. Click Done to exit the node pool details overview.

Resizing a node pool

gcloud

To resize a node pool, you use the gcloud container clusters resize command. You must specify the cluster's name, the name of the desired node pool, and the new number of nodes:

gcloud container clusters resize [CLUSTER_NAME] --node-pool [NODE_POOL] \
    --size [SIZE]

Repeat this command for each node pool. If your cluster only has its default node pool, omit the --node-pool flag.

For more information, refer to the gcloud container clusters resize documentation.

Console

To resize your cluster's node pools, perform the following steps:

1. Visit the Google Kubernetes Engine menu in GCP Console.

   Visit the Google Kubernetes Engine menu

2. Click the cluster's edit button, which looks like a pencil.

3. In the Node Pools section, change the value of the Size field to the desired value. Repeat for each node pool as needed.

4. Click Save.

Upgrading a node pool

Note: If you upgrade a node pool with an ingress in an errored state, the instance group does not sync. To work around this issue, first check the status using the kubectl get ing command. If the instance group is not synced, you can work around the problem by re-applying the manifest used to create the ingress.

gcloud

To update all nodes to the same version as the master, run the gcloud container clusters upgrade command:

gcloud container clusters upgrade [CLUSTER_NAME]

To update a specific node pool, specify the --node-pool flag:

gcloud container clusters upgrade [CLUSTER_NAME] --node-pool [POOL_NAME]

Console

To upgrade a node pool, perform the following steps:

1. Visit the Google Kubernetes Engine menu in GCP Console.

   Visit the Google Kubernetes Engine menu

2. Click the cluster's edit button, which looks like a pencil.

3. In the Node Pools section, click the Change link beside the desired node pool's Node version field.

4. Select the desired Kubernetes version.

5. Read the warning, then click Change to confirm.

6. Click Save to exit the cluster modification screen.

Deleting a node pool

Deleting a node pool deletes the nodes and routes to them. Any Pods running on those nodes are evicted and rescheduled. If the Pods have specific node selectors, the Pods might remain in an unschedulable condition if no other node in the cluster satisfies the criteria.

gcloud

To delete a node pool, run the gcloud node-pools delete command:

gcloud container node-pools delete [POOL_NAME] --cluster [CLUSTER_NAME]

Console

To delete a node pool, perform the following steps:

1. Visit the Google Kubernetes Engine menu in GCP Console.

   Visit the Google Kubernetes Engine menu

2. Click the cluster's edit button, which looks like a pencil.

3. In the Node Pools section, expand the node pool you want to delete.

4. Click the delete icon, which looks like a garbage can.

5. Click Save.

What's next

• Read about how node pools work.