Should I always set CPU Limits?

This is actually a subject of massive debate in the Kubernetes community. Some engineers argue that setting CPU limits causes unnecessary throttling when the node has plenty of idle CPU available. A common advanced pattern is to set strict Memory Limits (to prevent crashes), but leave CPU Limits absent, relying only on CPU Requests for baseline guarantees.

How do I know what values to set for my requests and limits?

You cannot guess. You must use observability tools. You deploy your application without limits in a staging environment, run a load test (like JMeter or k6), and observe the actual memory and CPU consumption using tools like Prometheus and Grafana. You then set your requests slightly above the baseline, and limits slightly above the peak.

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Resource Management

Master Kubernetes compute resource allocation. Understand the 'Noisy Neighbor' problem, how Requests affect scheduling, and the profound difference between OOMKilled and CPU Throttling.

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