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One of the great promises of cloud computing is dynamic resource scaling. When you get a spike in demand, cloud providers have the resources you need to use right away, and when you have lulls in traffic, you can quickly stop using (and paying for) them.
With container orchestration solutions on AWS like the Elastic Container Service (ECS) and the Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), you can use a variety of compute options, including EC2 VMs, Fargate, or Spot instances.
Spot instances are those that could potentially be taken away (with a small warning) but come with deep discounts. AWS offers Spot instances for both EC2 and Fargate workers, though Spot Fargate workers are not yet supported on EKS—only on ECS.
Read more about Kubernetes Spot Instances here.
You Should Know:
1. How to Configure Spot Instances in EKS
To use Spot instances in EKS, you need to configure a node group with Spot capacity:
eksctl create nodegroup --cluster my-cluster --name spot-nodegroup --spot --nodes-min=2 --nodes-max=5 --nodes=3 --node-type t3.large
### **2. Handling Spot Interruptions in Kubernetes**
AWS sends a termination notice 2 minutes before reclaiming a Spot instance. Use a Spot interruption handler to gracefully handle terminations:
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/aws/aws-node-termination-handler/releases/download/v1.16.0/all-resources.yaml
### **3. Using Spot with Fargate (ECS Only)**
To enable Spot in ECS Fargate, modify your task definition:
aws ecs register-task-definition --family my-task --cpu 1024 --memory 2048 --network-mode awsvpc --requires-compatibilities FARGATE --execution-role-arn ecsTaskExecutionRole --container-definitions file://container-def.json --capacity-provider-strategy "capacityProvider=FARGATE_SPOT,weight=1"
### **4. Monitoring Spot Instance Usage**
Track Spot instance usage with AWS CLI:
aws ec2 describe-spot-instance-requests --filters "Name=state,Values=active"
### **5. Automating Spot Fleet Management**
Use AWS Auto Scaling with Spot Fleet for cost optimization:
aws autoscaling create-auto-scaling-group --auto-scaling-group-name my-spot-fleet --launch-template "LaunchTemplateName=my-launch-template" --min-size 2 --max-size 10 --desired-capacity 3 --vpc-zone-identifier "subnet-123456,subnet-789012" --mixed-instances-policy file://mixed-instances-policy.json
## **What Undercode Say:**
Spot instances are a powerful way to reduce cloud costs, but they require proper handling to avoid disruptions. Key takeaways:
– Always implement Spot interruption handlers in Kubernetes.
– Use mixed instance policies to balance reliability and cost.
– Monitor Spot usage with CloudWatch and AWS CLI.
– For ECS, Fargate Spot is an excellent choice for stateless workloads.
For deeper cost savings, combine Spot with Reserved Instances and Savings Plans.
## **Expected Output:**
A well-configured Kubernetes or ECS cluster running on Spot instances, reducing costs by up to 90% while maintaining reliability through automated failover mechanisms.
Reference: Kubernetes Spot Instances Guide
References:
Reported By: Darryl Ruggles – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
