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Managing a Kubernetes cluster's node pools

Overview

You can group a cluster's worker nodes into node pools. The nodes in each pool are all of the same size, so if you want a cluster to have nodes of different instance sizes, you must create a new pool for each size.

Adding a new node pool

You can add a new node pool to a running cluster by clicking on "Create new pool" on your cluster's information page.

Cluster node pool information

You will be taken to the pool creation page:

Adding a new node pool options

In this section, you can select the number of nodes to create in this new pool, and the specifications/size of the nodes to create. You can choose from the same sizes as when creating a cluster.

The cost per node of each type is displayed.

When you click "Create new pool" you will be taken back to the cluster information page and the new pool will be displayed as creating:

New node pool is being created

You can then specify specific tasks within your cluster to run on a specific pool's nodes, optimizing your cluster.

Deleting a node pool

You can delete a node pool entirely by clicking on the "Delete" button next to the node pool information.

Node pools information

A popup will appear asking you to confirm that you want to delete the node pool by entering its name:

Delete node pool popup

The pool will be deleted as soon as you click "Delete" and is irreversible. All workloads in that pool will be destroyed and re-allocated in your cluster.

Recycling nodes

If you need to rebuild nodes for whatever reason, you can use the recycle method to rebuild a single node.

note

Recycling a node will delete it entirely, rebuild a new node to match it, and attach that to your cluster. When a node is recycled, it is fully deleted. The recycle command does not drain a node, it simply deletes it before building a new node and attaching it to a cluster. It is intended for scenarios where the node itself develops an issue and must be replaced with a new one.

Recycling a node on the dashboard is done on the Kubernetes cluster management page in the Node Pools section. Each node will have its own button to recycle, highlighted in the image below:

Recycle node button

Once you click the recycle button, you will be prompted to confirm your choice:

Recycle node confirmation

The confirmation is important, as the node is immediately torn down and replaced when recycled.