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Scenario #417
Scaling & Load
Kubernetes v1.26, KEDA + Kafka

KEDA Failed to Scale on Kafka Lag Metric

Consumers didn’t scale out despite Kafka topic lag.

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What Happened

High message lag persisted but consumer replicas remained at baseline.

Diagnosis Steps
  • 1kubectl get scaledobject showed no trigger activation.
  • 2Logs: authentication to Kafka metrics endpoint failed.
Root Cause

Incorrect TLS cert in KEDA trigger config.

Fix/Workaround
• Updated Kafka trigger auth to use correct secret.
Lessons Learned

External metric sources require secure, stable access.

How to Avoid
  • 1Validate all trigger auth and endpoints before production.
  • 2Alert on trigger activation failures.