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Configure Minimum and Maximum Memory Constraints for a Namespace

This page shows how to set minimum and maximum values for memory used by Containers running in a namespace. You specify minimum and maximum memory values in a LimitRange object. If a Pod does not meet the constraints imposed by the LimitRange, it cannot be created in the namespace.

Before you begin

You need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you do not already have a cluster, you can create one by using Minikube, or you can use one of these Kubernetes playgrounds:

To check the version, enter kubectl version.

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 constraints-mem-example

Create a LimitRange and a Pod

Here’s the configuration file for a LimitRange:

admin/resource/memory-constraints.yaml 
apiVersion: v1
kind: LimitRange
metadata:
  name: mem-min-max-demo-lr
spec:
  limits:
  - max:
      memory: 1Gi
    min:
      memory: 500Mi
    type: Container

Create the LimitRange:

kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/admin/resource/memory-constraints.yaml --namespace=constraints-mem-example

View detailed information about the LimitRange:

kubectl get limitrange mem-min-max-demo-lr --namespace=constraints-mem-example --output=yaml

The output shows the minimum and maximum memory constraints as expected. But notice that even though you didn’t specify default values in the configuration file for the LimitRange, they were created automatically.

  limits:
  - default:
      memory: 1Gi
    defaultRequest:
      memory: 1Gi
    max:
      memory: 1Gi
    min:
      memory: 500Mi
    type: Container

Now whenever a Container is created in the constraints-mem-example namespace, Kubernetes performs these steps:

  • If the Container does not specify its own memory request and limit, assign the default memory request and limit to the Container.

  • Verify that the Container has a memory request that is greater than or equal to 500 MiB.

  • Verify that the Container has a memory limit that is less than or equal to 1 GiB.

Here’s the configuration file for a Pod that has one Container. The Container manifest specifies a memory request of 600 MiB and a memory limit of 800 MiB. These satisfy the minimum and maximum memory constraints imposed by the LimitRange.

admin/resource/memory-constraints-pod.yaml 
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: constraints-mem-demo
spec:
  containers:
  - name: constraints-mem-demo-ctr
    image: nginx
    resources:
      limits:
        memory: "800Mi"
      requests:
        memory: "600Mi"

Create the Pod:

kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/admin/resource/memory-constraints-pod.yaml --namespace=constraints-mem-example

Verify that the Pod’s Container is running:

kubectl get pod constraints-mem-demo --namespace=constraints-mem-example

View detailed information about the Pod:

kubectl get pod constraints-mem-demo --output=yaml --namespace=constraints-mem-example

The output shows that the Container has a memory request of 600 MiB and a memory limit of 800 MiB. These satisfy the constraints imposed by the LimitRange.

resources:
  limits:
     memory: 800Mi
  requests:
    memory: 600Mi

Delete your Pod:

kubectl delete pod constraints-mem-demo --namespace=constraints-mem-example

Attempt to create a Pod that exceeds the maximum memory constraint

Here’s the configuration file for a Pod that has one Container. The Container specifies a memory request of 800 MiB and a memory limit of 1.5 GiB.

admin/resource/memory-constraints-pod-2.yaml 
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: constraints-mem-demo-2
spec:
  containers:
  - name: constraints-mem-demo-2-ctr
    image: nginx
    resources:
      limits:
        memory: "1.5Gi"
      requests:
        memory: "800Mi"

Attempt to create the Pod:

kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/admin/resource/memory-constraints-pod-2.yaml --namespace=constraints-mem-example

The output shows that the Pod does not get created, because the Container specifies a memory limit that is too large:

Error from server (Forbidden): error when creating "examples/admin/resource/memory-constraints-pod-2.yaml":
pods "constraints-mem-demo-2" is forbidden: maximum memory usage per Container is 1Gi, but limit is 1536Mi.

Attempt to create a Pod that does not meet the minimum memory request

Here’s the configuration file for a Pod that has one Container. The Container specifies a memory request of 100 MiB and a memory limit of 800 MiB.

admin/resource/memory-constraints-pod-3.yaml 
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: constraints-mem-demo-3
spec:
  containers:
  - name: constraints-mem-demo-3-ctr
    image: nginx
    resources:
      limits:
        memory: "800Mi"
      requests:
        memory: "100Mi"

Attempt to create the Pod:

kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/admin/resource/memory-constraints-pod-3.yaml --namespace=constraints-mem-example

The output shows that the Pod does not get created, because the Container specifies a memory request that is too small:

Error from server (Forbidden): error when creating "examples/admin/resource/memory-constraints-pod-3.yaml":
pods "constraints-mem-demo-3" is forbidden: minimum memory usage per Container is 500Mi, but request is 100Mi.

Create a Pod that does not specify any memory request or limit

Here’s the configuration file for a Pod that has one Container. The Container does not specify a memory request, and it does not specify a memory limit.

admin/resource/memory-constraints-pod-4.yaml 
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: constraints-mem-demo-4
spec:
  containers:
  - name: constraints-mem-demo-4-ctr
    image: nginx

Create the Pod:

kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/admin/resource/memory-constraints-pod-4.yaml --namespace=constraints-mem-example

View detailed information about the Pod:

kubectl get pod constraints-mem-demo-4 --namespace=constraints-mem-example --output=yaml

The output shows that the Pod’s Container has a memory request of 1 GiB and a memory limit of 1 GiB. How did the Container get those values?

resources:
  limits:
    memory: 1Gi
  requests:
    memory: 1Gi

Because your Container did not specify its own memory request and limit, it was given the default memory request and limit from the LimitRange.

At this point, your Container might be running or it might not be running. Recall that a prerequisite for this task is that your Nodes have at least 1 GiB of memory. If each of your Nodes has only 1 GiB of memory, then there is not enough allocatable memory on any Node to accommodate a memory request of 1 GiB. If you happen to be using Nodes with 2 GiB of memory, then you probably have enough space to accommodate the 1 GiB request.

Delete your Pod:

kubectl delete pod constraints-mem-demo-4 --namespace=constraints-mem-example

Enforcement of minimum and maximum memory constraints

The maximum and minimum memory constraints imposed on a namespace by a LimitRange are enforced only when a Pod is created or updated. If you change the LimitRange, it does not affect Pods that were created previously.

Motivation for minimum and maximum memory constraints

As a cluster administrator, you might want to impose restrictions on the amount of memory that Pods can use. For example:

  • Each Node in a cluster has 2 GB of memory. You do not want to accept any Pod that requests more than 2 GB of memory, because no Node in the cluster can support the request.

  • A cluster is shared by your production and development departments. You want to allow production workloads to consume up to 8 GB of memory, but you want development workloads to be limited to 512 MB. You create separate namespaces for production and development, and you apply memory constraints to each namespace.

Clean up

Delete your namespace:

kubectl delete namespace constraints-mem-example

What's next

For cluster administrators

For app developers

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