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Node pools

A node pool is a group of identically-sized worker nodes. The cluster's Node pools tab lists them with Name, Flavor, Scale (min–max, auto?), Nodes (current count) and Status.

Node pools

The row menu () has View detail, Edit, Scale, View machines, Recover and Delete.

Add a pool

New pool opens the pool builder — a derived read-only Name, a Type (Standard / Processor Optimized / Memory Optimized), a Flavor, optional GPU (model + count), Min / Max nodes, Storage (GiB) and an autoscaling toggle.

Create node pool

Edit a pool

Edit changes the pool's name, description and scaling, and — importantly — its Labels and Taints. Labels and taints control which workloads schedule onto the pool.

Edit node pool

note

Reserved label prefixes (kubernetes.io/, k8s.io/) are flagged — use your own keys for scheduling labels. Taints take an effect of NoSchedule, PreferNoSchedule or NoExecute.

Scale a pool

Scale sets the desired node count directly. (With autoscaling enabled the pool moves within its min–max range on its own; scaling manually sets a target inside that range.)

Scale node pool

View machines

View machines lists the pool's nodes with their IP and Status. Each node has Drain (cordon and evict its pods so they reschedule elsewhere — the node stays in the pool) and Remove (type-to-confirm; permanently removes the node).

Pool machines

Draining and removing nodes disrupt workloads

Drain evicts running pods; Remove and Delete node pool (type-to-confirm) take the node(s) out of the cluster for good. Make sure your workloads have somewhere else to schedule before you drain or remove capacity.