AKS Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA)

Use VPA to get data-driven resource recommendations for rightsizing pods. Always start in recommendation-only mode before considering auto-apply.

Enable VPA (Recommendation Mode)

# Enable VPA addon on AKS cluster (if not already enabled)
az aks update --enable-vpa --resource-group <RESOURCE_GROUP> --name <CLUSTER_NAME>

# Create a VPA object in recommendation mode for a deployment
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: autoscaling.k8s.io/v1
kind: VerticalPodAutoscaler
metadata:
  name: <DEPLOYMENT_NAME>-vpa
  namespace: <NAMESPACE>
spec:
  targetRef:
    apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
    name: <DEPLOYMENT_NAME>
  updatePolicy:
    updateMode: "Off"   # Recommendation only — does not modify pods
EOF

# Read recommendations after 24+ hours of data collection
kubectl describe vpa <DEPLOYMENT_NAME>-vpa -n <NAMESPACE>

Risk: Low in "Off" mode. Do not use updateMode: Auto in production without thorough testing and explicit user confirmation.

Read VPA Recommendations

kubectl get vpa <DEPLOYMENT_NAME>-vpa -n <NAMESPACE> -o jsonpath='{.status.recommendation}'

The output shows lowerBound, target, and upperBound for CPU and memory. Use the target values as rightsized requests.

Apply Recommendations Manually

After reviewing VPA output, patch the deployment — see azure-aks-rightsizing.md for the patch format.