Node Pools¶

Node pools are groups of worker nodes within a Gardener-managed Kubernetes cluster. Each pool uses a single machine type and can scale independently within its configured min/max bounds.

Gardener clusters only

Node pools are a Gardener concept. Generic clusters (registered via kubeconfig) do not expose node pool management through this API — manage their nodes directly through the cluster's own tooling.

Node pool fields¶

Node pools are embedded in the cluster object at node_pools. Each pool has:

Field	Description
`name`	Pool identifier within the cluster
`machine_type`	VM flavor for worker nodes (e.g. `m1.large`)
`min`	Minimum node count (cluster autoscaler lower bound)
`max`	Maximum node count (cluster autoscaler upper bound)
`current`	Current number of nodes in the pool
`status`	Pool health status

Viewing node pools¶

Node pool data is returned as part of the cluster show response:

GET /k8s/clusters/{id}?project_id=<uuid>
Authorization: Bearer <token>

{
  "id": "...",
  "kind": "gardener",
  "name": "prod-cluster",
  "node_pools": [
    {
      "name": "workers",
      "machine_type": "m1.large",
      "min": 2,
      "max": 10,
      "current": 4
    }
  ]
}

Modifying node pools¶

Update node pool configuration via the cluster update endpoint:

PATCH /k8s/clusters/{id}?project_id=<uuid>
Authorization: Bearer <token>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "node_pools": [
    {
      "name": "workers",
      "min": 3,
      "max": 15
    }
  ]
}

Gardener applies the change asynchronously. Watch lastOperation on the cluster to track progress.

Machine types¶

Available machine types are listed in the cluster's cloud profile:

GET /k8s/cloudprofiles/{id}
Authorization: Bearer <token>

The response includes a machineTypes array with each type's vCPU count, memory, storage, and GPU information.

Autoscaling¶

Gardener clusters use the Kubernetes cluster autoscaler. When all nodes in a pool are fully utilized and pods are pending, the autoscaler adds nodes up to max. When utilization drops, it removes nodes down to min. Set min: max to pin the pool at a fixed size and disable autoscaling for that pool.

Clusters — create, update, and delete Kubernetes clusters