EKS Spot Node Pool for Dev/Test
Spot nodes cost less because they can be reclaimed, and non-production node groups are the ones where a reclaim costs nothing but a reschedule.
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AWSKubernetes
Found, explained, handed over.
Findings with a dollar figure attached, idle, oversized, orphaned, unscheduled and undiscounted spend.
Detect
ZopNight checks this automatically across AWS, with read-only access to the account.
Explain
Every finding says exactly what to change: Move EKS node group to Spot capacity. Where the saving can be proven it is priced; where it cannot, the finding says so.
Fix
The finding opens with the fix already written out, step by step, so it is one ticket, not an investigation.
- Applies to
- EKS Node Groups on AWS
- The fix, by hand
- Confirm workloads on this node group tolerate Spot interruptions (checkpointing, fast restart, no stateful single-replica services).
- Pick the migration shape. Karpenter (recommended for Spot-heavy clusters): install controller + create NodePool + EC2NodeClass manifests. Managed node group (supported but increasingly legacy): create a new Spot node group with the same instance type families.
- Add 3 to 5 instance types to the Spot pool for capacity diversification.
- Cordon the on-demand node group: kubectl cordon ‹node›; drain pods with --grace-period and --ignore-daemonsets.
- Delete the on-demand node group via EKS console / aws eks delete-nodegroup.
These are the steps the finding carries in the product.
- Category
- Commitment discounts. Reserved Instance, Savings Plan and Committed Use opportunities, where steady usage justifies a commitment.
- Where it appears
- The Savings tab of Recommendations, with every affected resource listed.
- Rule ID
RC-040- Full reference
Related checks
See the discount opportunities in your account.
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- $30M+annualised cloud spend under management
- 550K+resources tracked since launch
- 20-60%off the bill in the first month
- SOC 2Type II report, plus ISO 27001
Figures published on zop.dev.