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Difficulty: MediumPlanning Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Cluster Architectures

A software development company is planning the cluster architecture for a new web service on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). The application consists of stateless microservices running standard containers. The infrastructure team requires an architecture that completely eliminates the operational overhead of managing, provisioning, and patching underlying compute nodes, while charging only for the requested Pod resources. Which GKE cluster architecture best fulfills these operational requirements?

  1. Deploy a GKE Autopilot cluster.Answer
  2. B
    Deploy a GKE Standard cluster with Cluster Autoscaler enabled across all node pools.
  3. C
    Deploy a GKE Standard cluster using Spot VMs for all node pools to minimize node management.
  4. D
    Deploy a GKE Standard cluster with Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) attached to the node pools.

Answer

Deploy a GKE Autopilot cluster.
GKE Autopilot is a fully managed cluster mode where Google handles the entire underlying node infrastructure, including node creation, scaling, security hardening, OS upgrades, and repairs. Users only configure workloads at the Pod level and pay specifically for requested Pod resources, making it the ideal choice when node management overhead must be completely eliminated.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze operational requirements
The requirements demand zero node management overhead (no manual or automated node pool configuration) and Pod-based billing.
Identifying key constraints narrows down GKE operational modes.
2
Evaluate GKE Autopilot vs. GKE Standard
GKE Autopilot fully provisions, configures, auto-repairs, and patches nodes automatically while billing based on Pod CPU/memory requests.
Autopilot satisfies the zero-node-overhead and Pod-level billing criteria.
3
Compare against GKE Standard options
GKE Standard, even with Cluster Autoscaler or Spot VMs, requires node pool design, node configuration management, and bills at the underlying VM node level.
Standard mode retains node-level operational responsibilities.

Key Concept

GKE Autopilot vs. Standard Operational Boundaries
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Planning Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Cluster Architectures

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