Cluster Orchestrator vs Karpenter
Harness Cluster Orchestrator vs AWS Karpenter
1. Spot Node Orchestration
| Feature | Karpenter | Cluster Orchestrator |
|---|---|---|
| Setup Complexity | Requires manual SQS Queue setup and maintenance | Works out-of-the-box with zero configuration |
| Interruption Handling | Basic SQS-based monitoring | Sophisticated interruption handling |
| Node Selection | Limited strategy options | Configurable strategies (cost-optimized, least-interrupted) |
| Fallback & Reverse Fallback | Basic fallback: moves pods to On-Demand once Spot is interrupted; no automatic return | Intelligent fallback automatically launches an On-Demand instance when Spot capacity gets unavailable. If market is unavailable, it creates an On Demand instance. And reverse fallback seamlessly moves workloads back to Spot when capacity is healthy. |
2. Cost Visibility and Savings Analysis
| Feature | Karpenter | Cluster Orchestrator |
|---|---|---|
| Cost Savings Visibility | No visibility into cost savings achieved through Spot usage | Real-Time Savings Insights: Track actual cost savings from Spot node utilization |
| Cluster Cost Insights | Lacks insights into cluster cost optimization potential | Comprehensive Cost Analysis: Perspectives provide deep cluster cost visibility |
3. Intelligent Bin Packing
| Feature | Karpenter | Cluster Orchestrator |
|---|---|---|
| Granular Thresholds | Fixed consolidation logic; cannot tune under-utilisation levels | Customisable CPU & Memory thresholds that drive extra bin-packing on top of Karpenter’s consolidation |
| Pod Evictions | Basic eviction | Evicts pods intelligently while honoring Pod Disruption Budgets |
| Resulting Utilisation | Moderate | Maximised node utilisation and lower waste |
4. Dynamic Spot/On-Demand Split Configuration
| Capability | Karpenter | Cluster Orchestrator |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage-based Spot/On-Demand mix | Not available | Specify exact Spot vs On-Demand percentages via WorkloadDistributionRules |
| Base capacity safeguards | Not available | Ensure minimum On-Demand replicas for critical workloads |
5. Commitment Utilization Guarantee
| Feature | Karpenter | Cluster Orchestrator |
|---|---|---|
| RI / Savings Plan awareness | Limited; manual tracking required | Fully integrated with Harness Commitment Orchestrator |
| Automatic node type selection | Not supported | Launches nodes that consume idle commitments first |
| Over-provisioning risk | High if data outdated | Minimized by commitment-aware scheduling |
6. Replacement Windows
| Capability | Karpenter | Cluster Orchestrator |
|---|---|---|
| Time-window control for disruptive ops | Available (NodePool Disruption Budgets) | Replacement Windows let you pre-schedule disruptive operations such as Bin Packing, Harness pod eviction, consolidation, and reverse fallback so that they run outside critical business periods |