When should you create a new cluster?

General Discussions
1

Sorry for the noob question. I’m still a beginner at kubernetes and currently learning on how to implement it in different scenarios.

Currently in my learning/playground managed kubernetes cluster (GKE), I have some services running for a practice micro-service based web app. I managed to have the development, testing, and production deployments isolated from each other with the use of namespaces (my convention right now is [PROJECT-NAME]-[STAGE] like “app-worker-production”). I also find myself using the same cluster for new practice projects that doesn’t have any relation with each other. I have a lot of Deployments and Services in my playground cluster right now.

This led me thinking on when should I create a new cluster? Other than region availability, e.g. EU cluster, US cluster, etc.

Can I use 1 cluster per region for everything?

2

I think for the reasons you said and when you need more isolation for some reason. Like, you want to do a kubernetes upgrade and, if for some reason there is a problem, you don’t want to affect all the apps in the cluster. Or more strict security reasons, etc. Or perform some changes, like change the network overlay, in some clients only, etc.

Also, if you are playing, you might want more than one cluster if you want to rest different network overlays, or ingress controllers in a more isolated way, etc.

But, probably, if you didn’t had the need for a different cluster, then probably you don’t need one :slight_smile: