BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fairwinds, a cloud-native infrastructure solutions provider, announced today the availability of Goldilocks, an open source tool for Kubernetes resource management. Goldilocks takes the guesswork out of setting resource requests and limits on applications running in Kubernetes production deployments, thereby helping to optimize resource utilization and ensure that applications run correctly. The Goldilocks software is available now via an open source download.
Resource requests and limits are used in Kubernetes to control CPU and memory resources, and they ensure that workloads are scheduled on nodes that can properly support the application. Requests define the resources that a container is guaranteed, while limits refer to a setting at which resources will be restricted. Requests must be set so that applications have enough CPU and memory to run as expected; at the same time, limits must be set to ensure that applications are not taking up more than their share of resources to the detriment of other applications. Kubernetes provides the ability to set default Namespace settings for requests and limits, but to ensure clusters remain stable, settings should match the unique requirements of each application.
“Today, Kubernetes users have no easy way to determine the resource requests and limits for their workload and often don’t set them at all. This can lead to issues with cluster stability,” said EJ Etherington, CTO at Fairwinds. “With our latest open source tool we make it easy to empirically determine those values anytime a new application is deployed into a cluster saving you time, and improving resource utilization and cluster stability.”
“Goldilocks recommendations allow me to quickly see intelligent, calculated memory recommendations for all of my apps. I definitely recommend it!” – Brent Jaworski, Lead DevOps Engineer at Boxed.
Goldilocks is a dashboard that surfaces data from Kubernetes’ Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA), which monitors the usage of pods, to make recommendations for setting resource requests and limits. Users can access a service in the cluster and the dashboard will provide two types of recommendations, depending on the QoS class desired. QoS classes in Kubernetes have three levels: guaranteed means that the application will be scheduled on a node where resources will be assured; burstable means that the application will be guaranteed a minimum level of resources but will be given more if and when available; best effort, which is not recommended, means that no requests or limits are set and the application will only be allocated resources when all other requests are met.
A blog post on Fairwinds Goldilocks can be accessed HERE. The Fairwinds Goldilocks Press Kit can be accessed HERE.
About Fairwinds ClusterOps
ClusterOps is a fully managed Kubernetes platform that delivers production-grade clusters managed 24x7 by a team of site reliability engineers. ClusterOps operates between the cloud infrastructure layer and the customer’s workloads, and integrates Fairwinds’ engineering expertise as well as its open source software and automation products. It provides all of the services and management controls necessary to ensure deployments are continuously optimized, highly available, and secure.
About Fairwinds
Fairwinds Ops, Inc. provides expertly-managed cloud native infrastructure leveraging containers and Kubernetes. We build and maintain reliable, scalable, and secure Kubernetes clusters using a combination of open source technology, automation, best practices and expertise. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA and provides a fully remote and distributed work environment. Visit www.fairwinds.com for more information.
