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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.