HPA Behavior Overrides

Each ScaleWindow in a ScheduledScalePolicy can optionally override HPA scaling behavior during the window. All fields are optional — omitting a field means the HPA’s existing config is untouched. Original values are saved in the CRD status and restored when windows deactivate.

Fields

Field	Type	Description
`disableScaleDown`	bool	Prevents the HPA from removing pods (sets `selectPolicy: Disabled`)
`scaleUpSpeed`	`Instant` / `Aggressive` / `Gradual`	Preset for HPA scaleUp behavior
`scaleDownSpeed`	`Slow` / `Gradual` / `Fast`	Preset for HPA scaleDown behavior (ignored if `disableScaleDown`)
`targetCPUUtilization`	int (1–100)	Override the HPA CPU metric target %

Speed presets

scaleUpSpeed

Value	Stabilization	Policy	Effect
`Instant`	0s	Percent: 200/60s	Triple per minute, zero delay
`Aggressive`	15s	Percent: 100/60s	Double per minute, brief smoothing
`Gradual`	60s	Pods: 3/60s	Slow ramp, 3 pods/min max

scaleDownSpeed

Value	Stabilization	Policy	Effect
`Slow`	600s	Percent: 5/60s	10-min wait, shed 5% per minute
`Gradual`	300s	Percent: 10/60s	5-min wait, shed 10% per minute (close to the K8s default)
`Fast`	60s	Percent: 25/60s	1-min wait, shed 25% per minute

Overlapping windows

minReplicas: highest wins.
Behavior fields: the first active window (in spec order) that sets a given field wins.
Different fields from different windows compose — window A’s scaleUpSpeed and window B’s scaleDownSpeed both apply.

Save / restore

Original minReplicas/maxReplicas are stored as HPA annotations (lightweight, survives controller restarts).
Original HPA spec.behavior is stored as JSON in the CRD status (OriginalBehavior field) — too complex for annotations.
Original CPU target is stored as OriginalCPUTarget in the CRD status (-1 = the metric didn’t exist before).

Full example

apiVersion: ops-ai.io/v1alpha1
kind: ScheduledScalePolicy
metadata:
  name: morning-burst
  namespace: tenant-ns
spec:
  hpaName: backend-hpa
  baseMinReplicas: 10
  mode: active
  windows:
    - name: morning-login-surge
      minReplicas: 50
      preScaleMinutes: 5
      disableScaleDown: true
      scaleUpSpeed: Instant
      targetCPUUtilization: 90
      schedule:
        type: Weekly
        startTime: "08:30"
        endTime: "10:30"
        timezone: "America/Los_Angeles"
        daysOfWeek: [Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday]

    - name: afternoon-steady
      minReplicas: 20
      scaleUpSpeed: Gradual
      scaleDownSpeed: Slow
      schedule:
        type: Weekly
        startTime: "12:00"
        endTime: "17:00"
        timezone: "America/Los_Angeles"
        daysOfWeek: [Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday]

Get Started

Platform

Operations

Migrating from CAST AI

Fields

Speed presets

scaleUpSpeed

scaleDownSpeed

Overlapping windows

Save / restore

Full example

​Fields

​Speed presets

​scaleUpSpeed

​scaleDownSpeed

​Overlapping windows

​Save / restore

​Full example

Fields

Speed presets

scaleUpSpeed

scaleDownSpeed

Overlapping windows

Save / restore

Full example