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Rightsizing · Medium severity

Node Pool Underutilised

Nodes bill for their machine type regardless of pod requests, so a pool below its allocatable capacity pays for the difference on every node.

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2clouds covered
Mediumseverity
Savingswhere it shows up
Manualfix, steps written out

AzureGoogle CloudKubernetes

Found, explained, handed over.

Findings with a dollar figure attached, idle, oversized, orphaned, unscheduled and undiscounted spend.

01

Detect

ZopNight checks this automatically across Azure and Google Cloud, with read-only access to the account.

02

Explain

Every finding says exactly what to change: Rightsize the underutilised GKE node pool. Where the saving can be proven it is priced; where it cannot, the finding says so.

03

Fix

The finding opens with the fix already written out, step by step, so it is one ticket, not an investigation.

Applies to
AKS Agent Pools on Azure, GKE Node Pools on Google Cloud
The fix, by hand on Azure
  1. Open Portal → Kubernetes services → ‹cluster› → Node pools → the resource, review pod count and node count.
  2. Confirm other pools have headroom: kubectl describe nodes against the surviving pools.
  3. Cordon and drain this pool's nodes (kubectl drain --ignore-daemonsets --delete-emptydir-data) so pods reschedule before delete.
  4. Reduce the node count to zero, or delete the pool. Verify no workload still selects taints/labels unique to this pool.

These are the steps the finding carries in the product.

Category
Rightsizing. Resources sized for headroom they never use. A smaller size runs the same workload for less.
Where it appears
The Savings tab of Recommendations, with every affected resource listed.
Rule IDs
RC-121 RC-1357
Full reference

GKE Node Pool Underutilized AKS Node Pool Underutilized

Related checks

AKS Node Pool Autoscaler Not EnabledAzureGKE Node Pool Not Using COS ImageGoogle CloudSpot Node Pool OpportunityAzure, Google CloudAKS Agent Pool VM-Size RightsizingAzureGKE Node Pool Machine-Type RightsizingGoogle CloudAzure DDoS Protection Plan Cost ReviewAzure

See the oversized resources 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.

Multi-cloud automation· Production-ready in 30 min· SOC 2 · ISO 27001· 20–60% off the bill, first month· 4 platforms · 1 console· Multi-cloud automation· Production-ready in 30 min· SOC 2 · ISO 27001· 20–60% off the bill, first month· 4 platforms · 1 console·