Spot Node Pool Opportunity
Spot nodes are discounted and preemptible; a node pool running interruptible workloads is paying standard rates for a guarantee those workloads do not need.
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AzureGoogle CloudKubernetes
Found, explained, handed over.
Findings with a dollar figure attached, idle, oversized, orphaned, unscheduled and undiscounted spend.
Detect
ZopNight checks this automatically across Azure and Google Cloud, with read-only access to the account.
Explain
Every finding says exactly what to change: Move the GKE node pool 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
- AKS Agent Pools on Azure, GKE Node Pools on Google Cloud
- The fix, by hand on Azure
- Confirm the workloads scheduled to this AKS cluster tolerate occasional node evictions (graceful shutdown handlers, no single-replica statefulness).
- AKS → the resource → Node pools → Add node pool.
- Mode = User; tick Enable Azure Spot instances; pick eviction policy = Delete; set Max price = -1.
- Add a Kubernetes taint
kubernetes.azure.com/scalesetpriority=spot:NoScheduleso only Spot-tolerant pods land here. - Annotate dev/test deployments with the matching toleration + a node affinity for the Spot pool.
- Watch evictions in Monitor → Insights → Events; ensure PodDisruptionBudgets keep production safe.
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 IDs
RC-114RC-250- Full reference
GKE Spot Node Pool Opportunity AKS Spot Node Pool Opportunity
Related checks
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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.