Resource Limits & CPU/RAM

Configure CPU and Memory requests (minimum required reserved resources) and limits (maximum allowed threshold) for containers.

1. Requests vs Limits

Requests (Guaranteed Reserve)

Minimum CPU & RAM required for Kube-scheduler to place the Pod on a node. Used for node capacity calculations.

Limits (Hard Ceiling Threshold)

Maximum CPU & RAM allowed. CPU is throttled if exceeded; Memory causes container OOMKilled (Exit Code 137) restart!

2. Production Resource Spec Example

containers:
  - name: node-api
    image: node-api:latest
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: "250m"      # 0.25 CPU Cores
        memory: "256Mi"  # 256 Megabytes RAM
      limits:
        cpu: "500m"      # 0.50 CPU Cores
        memory: "512Mi"  # 512 Megabytes RAM

Next Up

Learn Auto-scaling: Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA), Metrics Server, and Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA).

Next Lesson: Auto-scaling (HPA & VPA) →