Feature Request: Add NodePool Stop Functionality for Cost Savings in Development Environments

[kahirokunn]

Description

What problem are you trying to solve?

We would like to introduce a feature to Karpenter that allows for stopping NodePools during non-operational hours such as nights, weekends, and holidays. This would be particularly useful in development environments to reduce costs when the nodes are not in use.

How important is this feature to you?

This feature is highly important as it would significantly reduce operational costs in development environments. By automatically stopping NodePools during periods of inactivity, we can optimize resource usage and achieve substantial cost savings.

• Please vote on this issue by adding a 👍 reaction to the original issue to help the community and maintainers prioritize this request.
• Please do not leave "+1" or "me too" comments, they generate extra noise for issue followers and do not help prioritize the request.
• If you are interested in working on this issue or have submitted a pull request, please leave a comment.

[runningman84]

Isn’t the downscaler the better solution here?

[kahirokunn]

@runningman84 Is there a downscaler in Karpenter? Or are you talking about Pods?

[runningman84]

There is a downscaled for pods and if there are no pods running karpenter will delete the nodes…

[kahirokunn]

There are nearly 200 CNCF products, and expecting all of them to support nighttime shutdown or scheduling, or having a universal downscaler to handle all of them, is not practical. Many OSS controllers directly generate Pods, in addition to managing replicas for StatefulSets or Deployments. Hence, there are cases where having a feature to shut down by not provisioning Nodes is necessary. This is especially beneficial in development environments.