Configure Memory and CPU Quotas for a Namespace
This page shows how to set quotas for the total amount memory and CPU that can be used by all Pods running in a namespace. You specify quotas in a ResourceQuota object.
Before you begin
You need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. It is recommended to run this tutorial on a cluster with at least two nodes that are not acting as control plane hosts. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using minikube or you can use one of these Kubernetes playgrounds:
You must have access to create namespaces in your cluster.
Each node in your cluster must have at least 1 GiB of memory.
Create a namespace
Create a namespace so that the resources you create in this exercise are isolated from the rest of your cluster.
kubectl create namespace quota-mem-cpu-example
Create a ResourceQuota
Here is a manifest for an example ResourceQuota:
apiVersion: v1
kind: ResourceQuota
metadata:
name: mem-cpu-demo
spec:
hard:
requests.cpu: "1"
requests.memory: 1Gi
limits.cpu: "2"
limits.memory: 2Gi
Create the ResourceQuota:
kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/admin/resource/quota-mem-cpu.yaml --namespace=quota-mem-cpu-example
View detailed information about the ResourceQuota:
kubectl get resourcequota mem-cpu-demo --namespace=quota-mem-cpu-example --output=yaml
The ResourceQuota places these requirements on the quota-mem-cpu-example namespace:
- For every Pod in the namespace, each container must have a memory request, memory limit, cpu request, and cpu limit.
- The memory request total for all Pods in that namespace must not exceed 1 GiB.
- The memory limit total for all Pods in that namespace must not exceed 2 GiB.
- The CPU request total for all Pods in that namespace must not exceed 1 cpu.
- The CPU limit total for all Pods in that namespace must not exceed 2 cpu.
See meaning of CPU to learn what Kubernetes means by “1 CPU”.
Create a Pod
Here is a manifest for an example Pod:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: quota-mem-cpu-demo
spec:
containers:
- name: quota-mem-cpu-demo-ctr
image: nginx
resources:
limits:
memory: "800Mi"
cpu: "800m"
requests:
memory: "600Mi"
cpu: "400m"
Create the Pod:
kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/admin/resource/quota-mem-cpu-pod.yaml --namespace=quota-mem-cpu-example
Verify that the Pod is running and that its (only) container is healthy:
kubectl get pod quota-mem-cpu-demo --namespace=quota-mem-cpu-example
Once again, view detailed information about the ResourceQuota:
kubectl get resourcequota mem-cpu-demo --namespace=quota-mem-cpu-example --output=yaml
The output shows the quota along with how much of the quota has been used. You can see that the memory and CPU requests and limits for your Pod do not exceed the quota.
status:
hard:
limits.cpu: "2"
limits.memory: 2Gi
requests.cpu: "1"
requests.memory: 1Gi
used:
limits.cpu: 800m
limits.memory: 800Mi
requests.cpu: 400m
requests.memory: 600Mi
If you have the jq tool, you can also query (using JSONPath)
for just the used values, and pretty-print that that of the output. For example:
kubectl get resourcequota mem-cpu-demo --namespace=quota-mem-cpu-example -o jsonpath='{ .status.used }' | jq .
Attempt to create a second Pod
Here is a manifest for a second Pod:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: quota-mem-cpu-demo-2
spec:
containers:
- name: quota-mem-cpu-demo-2-ctr
image: redis
resources:
limits:
memory: "1Gi"
cpu: "800m"
requests:
memory: "700Mi"
cpu: "400m"
In the manifest, you can see that the Pod has a memory request of 700 MiB. Notice that the sum of the used memory request and this new memory request exceeds the memory request quota: 600 MiB + 700 MiB > 1 GiB.
Attempt to create the Pod:
kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/admin/resource/quota-mem-cpu-pod-2.yaml --namespace=quota-mem-cpu-example
The second Pod does not get created. The output shows that creating the second Pod would cause the memory request total to exceed the memory request quota.
Error from server (Forbidden): error when creating "examples/admin/resource/quota-mem-cpu-pod-2.yaml":
pods "quota-mem-cpu-demo-2" is forbidden: exceeded quota: mem-cpu-demo,
requested: requests.memory=700Mi,used: requests.memory=600Mi, limited: requests.memory=1Gi
Discussion
As you have seen in this exercise, you can use a ResourceQuota to restrict the memory request total for all Pods running in a namespace. You can also restrict the totals for memory limit, cpu request, and cpu limit.
Instead of managing total resource use within a namespace, you might want to restrict individual Pods, or the containers in those Pods. To achieve that kind of limiting, use a LimitRange.
Clean up
Delete your namespace:
kubectl delete namespace quota-mem-cpu-example
What's next
For cluster administrators
Configure Default Memory Requests and Limits for a Namespace
Configure Minimum and Maximum Memory Constraints for a Namespace
Configure Minimum and Maximum CPU Constraints for a Namespace