Resource utilization measures CPU or memory currently consumed by a node or workload. Use kubectl top to inspect actual usage, rather than resource allocation, which records pod requests and limits. section 8.2.2
Use utilization measurements for two operational tasks:
- Inspect node consumption with kubectl top nodes; output reports CPU cores, CPU percentage, memory, and memory percentage. section 8.2.2
- Drive Horizontal Pod Autoscaler decisions from CPU utilization calculated against configured CPU requests. section 5.1.5
- Keep actual utilization separate from scheduler capacity: kubectl describe node shows allocated requests and limits, not current consumption. section 8.2.2
Measure and scale nginx
Set the nginx container's CPU request to 10m, then create an HPA targeting 80% utilization with two to five replicas. Verify consumption with kubectl top pod and observe the HPA target, such as cpu: 0%/80%. section 5.1.5
