Resizing a cluster

This page explains how to resize clusters. You can resize a cluster to increase or decrease the number of nodes in that cluster. To learn how to add node pools and manage your existing node pools, refer to Adding and Managing 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.

Resizing a cluster

gcloud

To resize a cluster's node pools, run the following command:

gcloud container clusters resize [CLUSTER_NAME] --node-pool [POOL_NAME] \
    --num-nodes [NUM_NODES]

where:

• [CLUSTER_NAME] is the cluster's name.
• [POOL_NAME] is the name of the node pool to resize.
• [NUM_NODES] is the number of nodes to run in the pool.

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

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

Console

To resize 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 cluster's Edit button, which looks like a pencil.

3. In the Node pools section, expand the disclosure arrow for the node pool you want to change, and change the value of the Current size field to the desired value, then click Save.

4. Repeat for each node pool as needed.

5. Click Save to exit the cluster modification screen.

Increasing the size of your cluster

When you increase the size of a cluster:

• New node instances are created using the same configuration as the existing instances
• New Pods may be scheduled onto the new instances
• Existing Pods are not moved onto the new instances

When you increase the size of a node pool that spans multiple zones, the new size represents the number of nodes in the node pool per zone. For example, if you have a node pool of size 2 spanning two zones, the total node count is 4. If you resize the node pool to size 4, the total node count becomes 8.

Decreasing the size of your cluster

When you decrease the size of a cluster:

• The Pods that are scheduled on the instances being removed are killed
• Pods managed by a replication controller are rescheduled by the controller onto the remaining instances
• Pods not managed by a replication controller are not restarted

The managed instance group does not differentiate between instances running Pods and instances without Pods. Resizing down removes instances at random.

Decreasing the size of your cluster with drain

Beta

This is a Beta release of cluster resize with drain. This feature is not covered by any SLA or deprecation policy and might be subject to backward-incompatible changes.

You can manually decrease the size of your cluster and have such instance's Pods be drained before they are removed.

To learn how to add node pools and to manage existing ones, refer to Adding and Managing Node Pools.

Warning: Do not use both Cluster Autoscaler and manual resize commands simultaneously on a node pool, as this can cause interactions that result in unstable and/or incorrect node pool size.

To decrease and drain your cluster, run the following command:

gcloud beta container clusters resize [CLUSTER_NAME] --node-pool [NODE_POOL] \
--num-nodes [NUM_NODES]

Autoscaling a cluster

GKE's cluster autoscaler feature automatically resizes your node pools in response to changing conditions, such as changes in your workloads and resource usage.

To learn more about how autoscaling works, refer to the cluster autoscaler documentation. To set up autoscaling for your cluster, see Autoscaling a cluster.

What's next

• Learn more about clusters.