Node pools and auto scaling in GCP - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Node Pools and Auto Scaling in GCP

📖 Scenario: You are managing a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster for a small company. The company wants to organize their cluster nodes into groups called node pools. Each node pool can have different machine types and settings. They also want the cluster to automatically add or remove nodes based on the workload to save costs and keep performance good.

🎯 Goal: Build a GKE cluster configuration with two node pools and enable auto scaling on one of the node pools.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a GKE cluster named my-gke-cluster in the us-central1 region

Add a node pool named default-pool with machine type e2-medium and 3 nodes

Add a second node pool named autoscale-pool with machine type e2-small and 1 node

Enable auto scaling on the autoscale-pool with minimum 1 node and maximum 5 nodes

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Organizing nodes into pools and enabling auto scaling helps companies manage cloud resources efficiently, saving money and improving performance.

💼 Career

Cloud engineers and DevOps professionals often configure node pools and auto scaling to optimize Kubernetes clusters in production.

1

Create the initial GKE cluster configuration

Create a variable called cluster_config as a dictionary with the key name set to "my-gke-cluster" and the key location set to "us-central1".

GCP

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Think of cluster_config as a map that holds the cluster's name and location.

2

Add the default node pool configuration

Add a key node_pools to cluster_config with a list containing one dictionary. This dictionary should have name set to "default-pool", machine_type set to "e2-medium", and initial_node_count set to 3.

GCP

cluster_config = {
    "name": "my-gke-cluster",
    "location": "us-central1"
}
# Add node_pools key with default-pool configuration below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Remember, node_pools is a list of dictionaries, each describing a node pool.

3

Add the autoscale node pool configuration

Append a dictionary to the node_pools list in cluster_config with name set to "autoscale-pool", machine_type set to "e2-small", initial_node_count set to 1, and add an autoscaling key with a dictionary value containing min_node_count set to 1 and max_node_count set to 5.

GCP

cluster_config = {
    "name": "my-gke-cluster",
    "location": "us-central1",
    "node_pools": [
        {
            "name": "default-pool",
            "machine_type": "e2-medium",
            "initial_node_count": 3
        }
    ]
}
# Append autoscale-pool configuration below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Auto scaling settings go inside the autoscaling dictionary inside the node pool.

4

Complete the cluster configuration with auto scaling enabled

Ensure the cluster_config dictionary includes both node pools with their settings and auto scaling enabled on autoscale-pool. The final structure should have name, location, and node_pools keys with the correct nested dictionaries and lists as described.

GCP

cluster_config = {
    "name": "my-gke-cluster",
    "location": "us-central1",
    "node_pools": [
        {
            "name": "default-pool",
            "machine_type": "e2-medium",
            "initial_node_count": 3
        },
        {
            "name": "autoscale-pool",
            "machine_type": "e2-small",
            "initial_node_count": 1,
            "autoscaling": {
                "min_node_count": 1,
                "max_node_count": 5
            }
        }
    ]
}
# Confirm the cluster_config structure is complete
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Review the entire cluster_config dictionary to ensure all parts are included correctly.