Auto Mode for Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) provides automated and intelligent cluster operations and maintenance (O&M) for production environments. After you enable Auto Mode, you can create a best-practice Kubernetes cluster with minimal network planning and benefit from automated O&M.
Auto Mode provides the following benefits:
Comprehensive managed O&M, including a fully managed cluster control plane and key system add-ons, automatic Kubernetes version upgrades, and full node lifecycle management.
Automatic node autoscaling, eliminating the need for manual capacity planning and optimizing node resource costs.
A built-in managed Application Load Balancer (ALB) Ingress that provides a unified application access point for cluster services.
Best-practice security by default, with an immutable node host file system that enhances system security.
Full compatibility with the native Kubernetes ecosystem, including support for resources like DaemonSets.
Auto Mode is ideal for general containerized scenarios, especially in the following cases:
You have limited resources and cannot dedicate a large team to manage Kubernetes infrastructure.
You lack professional Kubernetes O&M experience but want to use Kubernetes to containerize and modernize your applications.
You need to quickly deploy standardized Kubernetes environments worldwide.
Features
Managed O&M
Cluster level: The cluster control plane and key system add-ons, such as CoreDNS and Container Storage Interface (CSI), are fully managed. Automatic Kubernetes version upgrades are enabled by default.
Node level: A node pool with Auto Mode enabled is created by default. ACK automatically recommends the optimal instance types, eliminating the need for manual configuration. ACK also handles O&M tasks such as OS and node add-on upgrades, and node security vulnerability patching.
Elastic node scaling
Auto Mode includes built-in node instant scaling, which dynamically scales nodes based on workload requirements. This eliminates upfront capacity planning and optimizes resource costs.
Second-level pod scaling
Supports second-level container scaling with ack-autoscaling-placeholder, which provides a buffer for pod autoscaling. This feature allows nodes to be pre-warmed, ensuring rapid pod scale-out without the delay of creating and joining new nodes.
Application Load Balancer (ALB)
A built-in Application Load Balancer (ALB) Ingress, based on ALB, offers powerful Ingress traffic management. It is compatible with Nginx Ingress, handles complex business routing, supports automatic certificate discovery, and supports the HTTP, HTTPS, and QUIC protocols.
Security
Optimized base software stack by default: Nodes use ContainerOS. Its immutable root file system enhances security, while its streamlined system and configuration accelerate node startup. The optimized kernel helps maximize hardware performance.
Security and observability by default: Features such as cluster inspection, API server auditing, and control plane add-on log collection are enabled by default, helping you quickly identify and resolve cluster issues.
When ACK performs O&M tasks such as OS upgrades, software upgrades, or security vulnerability patching, these tasks involve operations such as software version changes, configuration modifications, reboots, and node draining. Do not perform manual O&M on the ECS instances in the node pool, such as rebooting, mounting data disks, or logging in to nodes to modify configurations. This prevents conflicts with automated policies.
To ensure that nodes can be drained for maintenance without interrupting your services, configure your workloads with an appropriate number of replicas, PreStop hooks for graceful shutdown, and PodDisruptionBudget policies.
Nodes may be automatically replaced by the elastic scaling policy. Avoid using storage methods that rely on specific node paths, such as
hostPath. Use a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) for persistent storage.Because ContainerOS has an immutable root file system, if your applications require node environment customization or local data persistence, see ContainerOS to assess their compatibility in advance.
Get started
Deploy a workload in the cluster and expose it to the internet using an ALB Ingress. For more information, see Deploy a workload and configure load balancing.
Create more node pools (with or without Auto Mode) as needed. For more information, see Create and manage a node pool.
References
Shared responsibility model
Auto Mode is designed to provide automated and intelligent O&M for Kubernetes clusters, reducing your operational burden. However, you are still responsible for certain tasks in some scenarios.
Alibaba Cloud responsibilities | Customer responsibilities | Shared responsibilities |
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Billing
Auto Mode is a free feature available only for ACK managed Pro clusters. However, you are billed for cluster management fees and associated cloud resources. For more information, see Billing overview and Fees for cloud resources.
Quotas and limitations
When you use a smart managed node pool, ACK dynamically scales nodes based on workload demands. By default, the node pool can scale out to a maximum of 50 nodes. You can change this limit by using the node pool's auto scaling feature.
Smart managed node pools do not support certain instance types, such as Arm-based or local disk instances, and support only ContainerOS 3.6 and later. ACK provides default recommended instance type families that meet the needs of most applications. You can also adjust them in the console based on your business scenarios. We recommend that you set a sufficient number of instance types to improve the elasticity of the node pool and prevent scaling failures.
If you have a large-scale cluster or a large number of resources under your account, you must follow the quotas and limits that apply to ACK clusters.
ACK configuration limits, such as account balance requirements, and single-cluster capacity limits, which specify the maximum capacity for different Kubernetes resources in a single cluster.
Quotas for ACK clusters and dependent cloud services such as ECS and VPC, and information about how to increase a quota.
FAQ
Can I create a node pool without Auto Mode?
Yes. You can create self-managed node pools as needed and select managed configurations during creation. For more information, see Create and manage a node pool. For a comparison of the features of different managed configurations, see Comparison with other node pool modes.