KEDA (Kubernetes Event-Driven Autoscaling) Cheatsheet

Installation

Platform/Method	Command
Helm (Recommended)	`helm repo add kedacore https://kedacore.github.io/charts && helm repo update && helm install keda kedacore/keda --namespace keda --create-namespace`
YAML Manifest	`kubectl apply --server-side -f https://github.com/kedacore/keda/releases/download/v2.12.0/keda-2.12.0.yaml`
Specific Version	`helm install keda kedacore/keda --namespace keda --create-namespace --version 2.12.0`
macOS (Prerequisites)	`brew install kubectl helm`
Windows (Prerequisites)	`choco install kubernetes-cli kubernetes-helm`
OpenShift OperatorHub	Navigate to: Operators → OperatorHub → Search “KEDA”
Upgrade Existing	`helm upgrade keda kedacore/keda --namespace keda`
Uninstall	`helm uninstall keda --namespace keda`

Verification Commands

Command	Description
`kubectl get pods -n keda`	Check KEDA components are running
`kubectl get crd \	grep keda.sh`
`kubectl get deployment keda-operator -n keda`	Check KEDA operator deployment
`kubectl get apiservice v1beta1.external.metrics.k8s.io`	Verify metrics API service

Basic Commands

ScaledObject Management

Command	Description
`kubectl get scaledobjects`	List all ScaledObjects in current namespace
`kubectl get so`	List ScaledObjects (short form)
`kubectl get scaledobjects -A`	List ScaledObjects across all namespaces
`kubectl get scaledobjects -n production`	List ScaledObjects in specific namespace
`kubectl describe scaledobject <name>`	Show detailed information about a ScaledObject
`kubectl get scaledobject <name> -o yaml`	View ScaledObject YAML configuration
`kubectl get scaledobjects -w`	Watch ScaledObject status changes in real-time
`kubectl delete scaledobject <name>`	Delete a ScaledObject
`kubectl edit scaledobject <name>`	Edit ScaledObject configuration
`kubectl apply -f scaledobject.yaml`	Create/update ScaledObject from file

ScaledJob Management

Command	Description
`kubectl get scaledjobs`	List all ScaledJobs in current namespace
`kubectl get sj`	List ScaledJobs (short form)
`kubectl get scaledjobs -A`	List ScaledJobs across all namespaces
`kubectl describe scaledjob <name>`	Show detailed information about a ScaledJob
`kubectl get scaledjob <name> -o yaml`	View ScaledJob YAML configuration
`kubectl delete scaledjob <name>`	Delete a ScaledJob
`kubectl get jobs`	View Jobs created by ScaledJob
`kubectl logs job/<job-name>`	View logs from ScaledJob-created Job

Authentication Management

Command	Description
`kubectl get triggerauthentication`	List TriggerAuthentications
`kubectl get ta`	List TriggerAuthentications (short form)
`kubectl describe triggerauthentication <name>`	Show TriggerAuthentication details
`kubectl get clustertriggerauthentication`	List ClusterTriggerAuthentications
`kubectl get cta`	List ClusterTriggerAuthentications (short form)
`kubectl delete triggerauthentication <name>`	Delete a TriggerAuthentication
`kubectl create secret generic <name> --from-literal=key=value`	Create secret for TriggerAuthentication

Monitoring and Status

Command	Description
`kubectl get hpa`	View HPAs created by KEDA
`kubectl describe hpa keda-hpa-<name>`	Show HPA details for scaled resource
`kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'`	View recent scaling events
`kubectl logs -n keda deployment/keda-operator -f`	Follow KEDA operator logs
`kubectl logs -n keda deployment/keda-operator-metrics-apiserver -f`	Follow metrics server logs
`kubectl top pods`	View current pod resource usage
`kubectl get deployment <name>`	Check current replica count

Advanced Usage

Advanced ScaledObject Operations

Command	Description
`kubectl annotate scaledobject <name> autoscaling.keda.sh/paused-replicas=3`	Pause autoscaling at specific replica count
`kubectl annotate scaledobject <name> autoscaling.keda.sh/paused-replicas-`	Resume autoscaling (remove pause)
`kubectl patch scaledobject <name> -p '{"spec":{"minReplicaCount":5}}'`	Update minimum replica count
`kubectl patch scaledobject <name> -p '{"spec":{"maxReplicaCount":50}}'`	Update maximum replica count
`kubectl get scaledobject <name> -o jsonpath='{.status.conditions}'`	View ScaledObject status conditions
`kubectl get scaledobject <name> -o jsonpath='{.status.externalMetricNames}'`	View external metric names
`kubectl get scaledobject <name> -o jsonpath='{.status.scaleTargetKind}'`	View target resource kind

KEDA Operator Management

Command	Description
`kubectl scale deployment keda-operator -n keda --replicas=2`	Scale KEDA operator for HA
`kubectl rollout restart deployment/keda-operator -n keda`	Restart KEDA operator
`kubectl rollout status deployment/keda-operator -n keda`	Check operator rollout status
`kubectl get deployment -n keda -o wide`	View KEDA component details
`helm show values kedacore/keda`	View available Helm configuration options
`helm get values keda -n keda`	View current Helm installation values
`helm upgrade keda kedacore/keda -n keda --set operator.replicaCount=2`	Update KEDA configuration

Metrics and Debugging

Command	Description
`kubectl get --raw /apis/external.metrics.k8s.io/v1beta1`	Query external metrics API
`kubectl get --raw "/apis/external.metrics.k8s.io/v1beta1/namespaces/default/s0-<metric>"`	Query specific external metric
`kubectl describe apiservice v1beta1.external.metrics.k8s.io`	Check metrics API service status
`kubectl logs -n keda -l app=keda-operator --tail=100`	View recent operator logs
`kubectl logs -n keda -l app=keda-operator-metrics-apiserver --tail=100`	View recent metrics server logs
`kubectl get events -n keda`	View KEDA namespace events
`kubectl describe hpa -A \	grep -A 10 “keda-hpa”`

Multi-Trigger and Complex Scenarios

Command	Description
`kubectl get scaledobject <name> -o jsonpath='{.spec.triggers[*].type}'`	List all trigger types for a ScaledObject
`kubectl get scaledobject <name> -o jsonpath='{.status.health}'`	Check health status of triggers
`kubectl get scaledobject <name> -o jsonpath='{.status.lastActiveTime}'`	View last active time
`kubectl get scaledobject <name> -o jsonpath='{.status.currentReplicas}'`	View current replica count
`kubectl get scaledobject <name> -o jsonpath='{.status.desiredReplicas}'`	View desired replica count

Configuration

Basic ScaledObject Configuration

apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ScaledObject
metadata:
  name: my-scaledobject
  namespace: default
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    name: my-deployment              # Target deployment name
  minReplicaCount: 0                 # Minimum replicas (0 for scale-to-zero)
  maxReplicaCount: 10                # Maximum replicas
  pollingInterval: 30                # Seconds between metric checks
  cooldownPeriod: 300                # Seconds to wait after last trigger
  triggers:
  - type: prometheus                 # Scaler type
    metadata:
      serverAddress: http://prometheus:9090
      metricName: http_requests_total
      threshold: '100'
      query: sum(rate(http_requests_total[2m]))

ScaledObject with Multiple Triggers

apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ScaledObject
metadata:
  name: multi-trigger-scaler
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    name: api-deployment
  minReplicaCount: 1
  maxReplicaCount: 50
  triggers:
  - type: prometheus
    metadata:
      serverAddress: http://prometheus:9090
      threshold: '100'
      query: sum(rate(http_requests_total[2m]))
  - type: cpu
    metricType: Utilization
    metadata:
      value: "70"
  - type: memory
    metricType: Utilization
    metadata:
      value: "80"

ScaledObject with Advanced HPA Behavior

apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ScaledObject
metadata:
  name: advanced-scaling
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    name: worker-deployment
  minReplicaCount: 2
  maxReplicaCount: 100
  advanced:
    restoreToOriginalReplicaCount: true
    horizontalPodAutoscalerConfig:
      behavior:
        scaleDown:
          stabilizationWindowSeconds: 300
          policies:
          - type: Percent
            value: 50              # Scale down max 50% at a time
            periodSeconds: 60
        scaleUp:
          stabilizationWindowSeconds: 0
          policies:
          - type: Percent
            value: 100             # Scale up max 100% at a time
            periodSeconds: 15
          - type: Pods
            value: 5               # Or add max 5 pods at a time
            periodSeconds: 15
          selectPolicy: Max        # Use the policy that scales faster
  triggers:
  - type: kafka
    metadata:
      bootstrapServers: kafka:9092
      consumerGroup: my-group
      topic: events
      lagThreshold: '10'

ScaledJob Configuration

apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ScaledJob
metadata:
  name: batch-processor
spec:
  jobTargetRef:
    parallelism: 1
    completions: 1
    backoffLimit: 3
    template:
      spec:
        containers:
        - name: processor
          image: myapp:latest
          command: ["./process"]
        restartPolicy: Never
  pollingInterval: 30
  maxReplicaCount: 10
  successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 5
  failedJobsHistoryLimit: 5
  scalingStrategy:
    strategy: "default"           # or "custom", "accurate"
  triggers:
  - type: rabbitmq
    metadata:
      queueName: jobs
      host: amqp://guest:guest@rabbitmq:5672
      queueLength: '5'

TriggerAuthentication with Secret

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq-secret
type: Opaque
stringData:
  connection-string: "amqp://user:password@rabbitmq:5672"
---
apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: TriggerAuthentication
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq-auth
spec:
  secretTargetRef:
  - parameter: host
    name: rabbitmq-secret
    key: connection-string

ClusterTriggerAuthentication with Pod Identity

apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ClusterTriggerAuthentication
metadata:
  name: aws-credentials
spec:
  podIdentity:
    provider: aws-eks              # or aws-kiam, azure, gcp
    identityId: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/keda-role

Helm Installation Values

# values.yaml for Helm installation
operator:
  replicaCount: 2                  # HA setup
  
metricsServer:
  replicaCount: 2                  # HA setup
  
serviceAccount:
  annotations:
    eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/keda-role

resources:
  operator:
    limits:
      cpu: 1000m
      memory: 1000Mi
    requests:
      cpu: 100m
      memory: 100Mi
  metricServer:
    limits:
      cpu: 1000m
      memory: 1000Mi
    requests:
      cpu: 100m
      memory: 100Mi

prometheus:
  operator:
    enabled: true
    podMonitor:
      enabled: true
  metricServer:
    enabled: true
    podMonitor:
      enabled: true

Common Use Cases

Use Case 1: RabbitMQ Queue-Based Scaling

Scale a worker deployment based on RabbitMQ queue depth:

# Create secret with RabbitMQ credentials
kubectl create secret generic rabbitmq-secret \
  --from-literal=host='amqp://user:password@rabbitmq.default.svc.cluster.local:5672'

# Create TriggerAuthentication
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: TriggerAuthentication
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq-auth
spec:
  secretTargetRef:
  - parameter: host
    name: rabbitmq-secret
    key: host
EOF

# Create ScaledObject
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ScaledObject
metadata:
  name: rabbitmq-scaler
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    name: worker-deployment
  minReplicaCount: 0
  maxReplicaCount: 30
  triggers:
  - type: rabbitmq
    metadata:
      protocol: amqp
      queueName: tasks
      mode: QueueLength
      value: '5'
    authenticationRef:
      name: rabbitmq-auth
EOF

# Monitor scaling
kubectl get scaledobject rabbitmq-scaler -w
kubectl get hpa
kubectl get deployment worker-deployment

Use Case 2: Kafka Consumer Group Lag Scaling

Scale Kafka consumers based on consumer group lag:

# Create ScaledObject for Kafka
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ScaledObject
metadata:
  name: kafka-consumer-scaler
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    name: kafka-consumer
  minReplicaCount: 1
  maxReplicaCount: 50
  triggers:
  - type: kafka
    metadata:
      bootstrapServers: kafka.default.svc.cluster.local:9092
      consumerGroup: my-consumer-group
      topic: events
      lagThreshold: '10'
      offsetResetPolicy: latest
EOF

# Check scaling status
kubectl describe scaledobject kafka-consumer-scaler
kubectl get hpa keda-hpa-kafka-consumer-scaler

# View external metrics
kubectl get --raw "/apis/external.metrics.k8s.io/v1beta1/namespaces/default/s0-kafka-my-consumer-group" | jq

Use Case 3: Prometheus Metrics-Based Scaling

Scale based on custom Prometheus metrics:

# Create ScaledObject with Prometheus trigger
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ScaledObject
metadata:
  name: prometheus-scaler
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    name: api-server
  minReplicaCount: 2
  maxReplicaCount: 20
  triggers:
  - type: prometheus
    metadata:
      serverAddress: http://prometheus.monitoring.svc.cluster.local:9090
      metricName: http_requests_per_second
      threshold: '100'
      query: |
        sum(rate(http_requests_total{job="api-server"}[2m]))
EOF

# Verify Prometheus connectivity
kubectl logs -n keda deployment/keda-operator | grep prometheus

# Test scaling
kubectl get scaledobject prometheus-scaler -o jsonpath='{.status}'

Use Case 4: Cron-Based Scheduled Scaling

Scale workloads based on time schedules:

# Create ScaledObject with cron trigger for business hours
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ScaledObject
metadata:
  name: scheduled-scaler
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    name: business-app
  minReplicaCount: 1
  maxReplicaCount: 1
  triggers:
  - type: cron
    metadata:
      timezone: America/New_York
      start: 0 8 * * 1-5          # 8 AM Mon-Fri
      end: 0 18 * * 1-5            # 6 PM Mon-Fri
      desiredReplicas: "10"
  - type: cron
    metadata:
      timezone: America/New_York
      start: 0 18 * * 1-5          # 6 PM Mon-Fri
      end: 0 8 * * 1-5             # 8 AM Mon-Fri
      desiredReplicas: "2"
EOF

# Monitor scheduled scaling
kubectl get scaledobject scheduled-scaler -w
kubectl get events --field-selector involvedObject.name=scheduled-scaler

Use Case 5: AWS SQS Queue Processing with ScaledJob

Process AWS SQS messages using batch jobs:

# Create ClusterTriggerAuthentication with AWS IAM
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ClusterTriggerAuthentication
metadata:
  name: aws-credentials
spec:
  podIdentity:
    provider: aws-eks
EOF

# Create ScaledJob for SQS processing
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: keda.sh/v1alpha1
kind: ScaledJob
metadata:
  name: sqs-processor
spec:
  jobTargetRef:
    template:
      spec:
        containers:
        - name: processor
          image: my-sqs-processor:latest
          env:
          - name: QUEUE_URL
            value: https://sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/123456789012/my-queue
        restartPolicy: Never
  pollingInterval: 30
  maxReplicaCount: 10
  successfulJobsHistoryLimit: 3
  failedJobsHistoryLimit: 3
  triggers:
  - type: aws-sqs-queue
    authenticationRef:
      name: aws-credentials
      kind: ClusterTriggerAuthentication
    metadata:
      queueURL: https://sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/123456789012/my-queue
      queueLength: '5'
      awsRegion: us-east-1
EOF

# Monitor job creation
kubectl get scaledjob sqs-processor
kubectl get jobs -l scaledjob.keda.sh/name=sqs-processor
kubectl logs job/<job-name>

Best Practices

Start with Conservative Limits: Begin with minReplicaCount: 1 and moderate maxReplicaCount values. Test scale-to-zero (minReplicaCount: 0) only after validating your application handles cold starts gracefully.
Configure Appropriate Polling and Cooldown: Set pollingInterval (default 30s) based on your metric source’s update frequency. Use longer cooldownPeriod (default 300s) for workloads with variable traffic to prevent flapping.
Use TriggerAuthentication for Secrets: Never hardcode credentials in ScaledObject specs. Always use TriggerAuthentication or ClusterTriggerAuthentication with Kubernetes secrets or pod identity providers (AWS IAM, Azure AD, GCP Workload Identity).
Implement HPA Behavior Policies: For production workloads, configure advanced.horizontalPodAutoscalerConfig.behavior to control scale-up/scale-down rates. Prevent aggressive scaling with stabilization windows and percentage-based policies.
Monitor KEDA Components: Deploy KEDA operator and metrics server with at least 2 replicas for high availability. Enable Prometheus monitoring and set up alerts for KEDA component health and scaling failures.
Set Resource Limits: Always define resource requests and limits for both KEDA components and scaled workloads. This prevents resource contention and ensures predictable scaling behavior.
Use Fallback Configuration: Configure fallback.replicas and fallback.failureThreshold to maintain service availability when external metric sources are unavailable. This prevents scaling to zero during metric source outages.
Test Scaling Behavior: Before production deployment, test scaling under load using the pause annotation (autoscaling.keda.sh/paused-replicas) to validate trigger thresholds and observe scaling patterns without affecting live traffic.
Namespace Isolation: Use separate namespaces for different environments (dev, staging, prod) and apply appropriate RBAC policies. Use ClusterTriggerAuthentication for shared credentials across namespaces.
Version Control ScaledObjects: Store all KEDA resources in Git alongside application manifests. Use GitOps tools (ArgoCD, Flux) to manage KEDA configurations and ensure consistency across environments.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
ScaledObject not creating HPA	Check KEDA operator logs: `kubectl logs -n keda deployment/keda-operator`. Verify scaleTargetRef points to existing deployment/statefulset. Ensure deployment has valid selector labels.
Pods not scaling to zero	Verify `minReplicaCount: 0` is set. Check if HPA exists: `kubectl get hpa`. Ensure no other HPAs target the same deployment. Review trigger conditions: `kubectl describe scaledobject <name>`.
Metrics not available	Check metrics server: `kubectl get apiservice v1beta1.external.metrics.k8s.io`. View metrics server logs: `kubectl logs -n keda deployment/keda-operator-metrics-apiserver`. Verify trigger authentication is configured correctly.
Authentication failures	Verify secret exists: `kubectl get secret <name>`. Check TriggerAuthentication references correct secret and keys. For pod identity, ensure service account has proper IAM/Azure AD annotations. Test credentials manually.