Application auto-scaling capabilities in v2.1.0 of the IBM Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment
We are excited to announce the availability of application auto-scaling capabilities in v2.1.0 of the IBM Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment (CFEE) offering. This is built on the open-source App-Autoscaler project in the Cloud Foundry community.
Auto-scaling monitors your applications and automatically adjusts the number of application instances based on policies you control.
What’s in it for you?
Auto-scaling ensures an optimum number of application instances to maintain your desired quality of service so that you only use resources you really need. With auto-scaling, you gain the following benefits:
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Optimum quality of service: The App-Autoscaler monitors your application instances along with application metrics and scales instances to maintain the quality of service you define in your scaling policies.
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High availability: Auto-scaling helps you tune your application instance scaling based on rules you define so that your application does not get overloaded due to variable demand.
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Optimum resource usage: Auto-scaling allows you to avoid over-provisioning applications and helps you to optimize the usage of your CFEE capacity.
App-Autoscaler features
App-Autoscaler is a Cloud Foundry open source extension project that started as an incubator project two years ago. The project was generally available in late 2018 and has since graduated to be a core Cloud Foundry project. It is already deployed in several production environments worldwide.
The App-Autoscaler allows you to define rules based on the following parameters:
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Dynamic scaling based on CPU, memory, throughput, and response times
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Scheduled scaling at specific times you define
Additionally, App-Autoscaler also provides a command-line interface for managing scaling policies, application metrics, and querying scaling event, and a web-based user interface that is tightly integrated with Stratos (another open source Cloud Foundry project).
How does App-Autoscaler compare with the existing auto-scaling service in IBM Cloud Foundry Public?
We have taken great care in maintaining a similar user experience between the existing auto-scaling service in Cloud Foundry Public and this new updated service in the Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment. The updated App-Autoscaler has the following additional advantages:
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Simplified experience: You no longer need service binding to use this service from apps deployed to CFEE instances. You can directly configure the policy through the UI or CLI.
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No application re-staging needed: You do not need to re-stage your CF applications to instrument them with your scaling policy metrics.
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Runtime independent: The App-Autoscaler works in all CF runtimes with the same user-experience and scaling policies.
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Matching pace with the CF community: Future features of the App-Autoscaler open-source project will be available without delay in IBM Cloud.
By the way, we like this new auto-scaling capability so much that we will be rolling it out soon in our IBM Cloud Foundry Public offering as well. Stay tuned!
How do I use it?
All future versions of CFEE (starting with v2.1.0) will have the App-Autoscaler included free of charge.
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Sign up for an IBM Cloud account or log in with your existing one.
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Create your own Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment instance.
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Push a CF application into your Cloud Foundry Enterprise Environment.
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Consult the documentation for details on how to use the App-Autoscaler.
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Join us on our Slack feedback forum to send your feedback, ask questions, and engage with the product team. Request access here
