You configured a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler but notice it never scales pods beyond the minimum replicas even under high load. What is the most likely cause?

medium📝 Analysis Q14 of 15

Microservices - Orchestration with Kubernetes

AThe maxReplicas is set lower than minReplicas

BThe metrics server is not running or not providing metrics

CThe deployment has too many replicas already

DThe pods are using too little CPU

Step-by-Step Solution

Solution:

Step 1: Check autoscaler dependency on metrics
Horizontal Pod Autoscaler requires metrics server to get CPU or custom metrics to decide scaling.
Step 2: Understand effect of missing metrics
If metrics server is missing or not providing data, autoscaler cannot detect load and keeps pods at minReplicas.
Final Answer:
The metrics server is not running or not providing metrics -> Option B
Quick Check:
Missing metrics = no scaling beyond minReplicas [OK]

Quick Trick: Autoscaler needs metrics server to scale pods [OK]

Common Mistakes:

MISTAKES

Assuming maxReplicas lower than minReplicas causes this
Thinking high load always triggers scaling
Ignoring metrics server setup

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More Microservices Quizzes

You configured a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler but notice it never scales pods beyond the minimum replicas even under high load. What is the most likely cause?

Step 1: Check autoscaler dependency on metrics

Step 2: Understand effect of missing metrics

Final Answer:

Quick Check:

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