Configure Karpenter consolidation and disruption budgets to control node scale-down timing
domain: karpenter.sh · 6 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Set spec.disruption.consolidationPolicy on the NodePool to `WhenEmptyOrUnderutilized` (default; also replaces underutilized nodes with cheaper ones) or `WhenEmpty` (only fully empty nodes are eligible).
Set spec.disruption.consolidateAfter to a duration (e.g. `1m`, default `0s`) or `Never` to control how long Karpenter waits after a pod is added to or removed from a node before considering that node for consolidation.
Add spec.disruption.budgets entries with a `nodes` value as a percentage or absolute count (e.g. `nodes: "20%"`) to rate-limit how many nodes can be voluntarily disrupted at once; if budgets is left undefined, Karpenter defaults to a single budget of `nodes: 10%`.
Scope individual budgets to specific disruption reasons using the `reasons` field (`Drifted`, `Underutilized`, `Empty`) — a budget with no reasons listed applies to all of them, and Karpenter takes the minimum (most restrictive) allowed-disruption count across all applicable budgets.
Add a scheduled budget by setting `schedule` (five-field cron syntax, always UTC, no timezone support) together with `duration`, e.g. `nodes: "0"` with `schedule: "0 9 * * mon-fri"` and `duration: 8h` to block disruption during business hours.
Apply the NodePool and verify behavior by watching Kubernetes events on nodes — Karpenter emits `Unconsolidatable` events explaining why a specific node wasn't consolidated (e.g. a blocking PDB or a lower-priced replacement not being available).
Known gotchas
NodePool disruption budgets only rate-limit voluntary disruption (drift, emptiness, consolidation) — they do NOT block forceful methods like Expiration or Interruption, so nodes can still be terminated even when a budget's allowed-disruption count is zero.
`schedule` and `duration` must be defined together (omitting both means the budget is always active); schedules are interpreted strictly in UTC regardless of cluster or user timezone.
Preferred pod anti-affinity and topologySpreadConstraints can silently reduce consolidation effectiveness — Karpenter tries to preserve those preferences during simulation and just logs which pods are preventing disruption rather than treating it as an error.
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