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Autoscale a Deployment in Kubernetes

The Horizontal Pod Autoscaler is a great way to automatically scale Kubernetes applications in response to demands in real time. In this lab, you will have the opportunity to practice your skills with the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler by autoscaling an existing Deployment. This will give you some hands-on experience with autoscaling applications in Kubernetes.

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Path Info

Level
Clock icon Intermediate
Duration
Clock icon 30m
Last updated
Clock icon Aug 30, 2025

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Configure Resource Requests for the Deployment

    The plantzone Deployment is in the default namespace. Add a resource request to the Deployment's Pod template so that the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler will have a baseline for app's expected CPU usage. Each Pod is expected to use around 50m CPU under normal conditions.

    You can find a Deployment manifest for the plantzone Deployment at /home/cloud_user/plantzone.yml.

  2. Challenge

    Create an HPA to Autoscale the Deployment

    Create a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler to automatically scale the plantzone Deployment. Make sure there is always a minimum of 2 replicas, with the ability to scale up to a maximum of 8 replicas. The target percentage for CPU utilization should be 50.

  3. Challenge

    Simulate a Burst of CPU Load and Observe the Autoscaling Behavior

    You can create load by making a specialized HTTP request to any of the Deployment's Pods. There is a NodePort service in place to make it easy to reach these Pods. You can communicate with the Service using port 30080 on the lab server node, localhost:30080.

    This command will generate approximately 250m CPU load for 2 minutes:

    curl localhost:30080/ConsumeCPU -d "millicores=250&durationSec=120"

    After generating the load, observe the behavior of the autoscaler. It should scale the Deployment up. Then, about 5 minutes after the CPU load goes way, it should scale back down.

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Pluralsight Skills

Pluralsight Skills gives leaders confidence they have the skills needed to execute technology strategy. Technology teams can benchmark expertise across roles, speed up release cycles and build reliable, secure products. By leveraging our expert content, skill assessments and one-of-a-kind analytics, keep up with the pace of change, put the right people on the right projects and boost productivity. It's the most effective path to developing tech skills at scale.

What's a lab?

Hands-on Labs are real environments created by industry experts to help you learn. These environments help you gain knowledge and experience, practice without compromising your system, test without risk, destroy without fear, and let you learn from your mistakes. Hands-on Labs: practice your skills before delivering in the real world.

Provided environment for hands-on practice

We will provide the credentials and environment necessary for you to practice right within your browser.

Guided walkthrough

Follow along with the author’s guided walkthrough and build something new in your provided environment!

Did you know?

On average, you retain 75% more of your learning if you get time for practice.
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