Google PCA Practice Question: Managing and Provisioning a Solution Infrastructure
A team is using GKE with cluster autoscaling enabled. They notice that some nodes are underutilized but the cluster autoscaler does not remove them. What could be the reason?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The node has pods with restrictive PodDisruptionBudgets
The cluster autoscaler does not remove a node if there are pods that cannot be rescheduled elsewhere. This can happen due to PodDisruptionBudgets, local storage, or node-specific constraints.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The node is in a different zone
Why it's wrong here
As long as pods can be rescheduled, zone doesn't block scale-down.
- ✗
The node has running pods that are part of a DaemonSet
Why it's wrong here
DaemonSet pods are typically excluded from scale-down consideration, but other pods may still be rescheduled.
- ✗
The cluster autoscaler is not configured to scale down
Why it's wrong here
Scale-down is enabled by default; if disabled, no nodes would be removed, but that is not the case.
- ✓
The node has pods with restrictive PodDisruptionBudgets
Why this is correct
If PDB prevents pod eviction, the node cannot be removed.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Load Balancing and Autoscaling
Key term
CAN
A CAN (Controller Area Network) is a robust vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other without a host computer.
Key term
Autoscaler
An Autoscaler is a cloud service that automatically increases or decreases the number of virtual machines (instances) or resources based on real-time demand, so your application always has enough capacity without wasting money on idle servers.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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