CPU Utilization-Based Scaling Did Not Trigger for High Memory Usage

Scaling based on CPU utilization did not trigger when the issue was related to high memory usage.

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What Happened

Despite high memory usage, CPU-based scaling did not trigger any scaling events, causing performance degradation.

Diagnosis Steps

1Analyzed pod metrics and found that memory was saturated while CPU utilization was low.
2Checked HPA configuration, which was set to trigger based on CPU metrics, not memory.

Root Cause

Autoscaling was configured to use CPU utilization, not accounting for memory usage.

Fix/Workaround

• Configured HPA to also consider memory usage as a scaling metric.
• Adjusted scaling policies to scale pods based on both CPU and memory utilization.

Lessons Learned

Autoscaling should consider multiple resource metrics based on application needs.

How to Avoid

1Regularly assess the right metrics to base autoscaling decisions on.
2Tune autoscaling policies for the resource most affected during high load.

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