Enabling swap in a traditional Linux environment is straightforward, allowing the OS to manage memory efficiently. However, Kubernetes operates differently, focusing on predictable scheduling and behavior in multi-tenant clusters, leading to swap being disabled by default. When memory pressure occurs, Kubernetes prioritizes predetermined policies over swap space, which results in issues like OOMKills despite correct swap configurations. Understanding Kubernetes' memory.available calculations and cgroup limits is essential for effective resource management and stability in containerized environments, highlighting that simply enabling swap is not a solution.
Enabling swap in Kubernetes doesn’t provide the expected safety net against memory issues, and can lead to worse outcomes like OOMKills or pod evictions.
Kubernetes enforces cgroup limits and operates under predictable scheduling, making it crucial to understand how memory pressure affects pod eviction beyond just enabling swap.
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