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This paper introduces the Intelligent Cluster Optimizer, an open-source Kubernetes operator designed to enhance resource management by implementing a five-layer safety pipeline that prioritizes safety in vertical resource optimization. By integrating a memory-leak detector that utilizes linear regression for blocking harmful actions, the system prevents over-provisioning and software defects from being masked by excessive resource allocation. Validation through extensive automated testing and a live deployment demonstrated significant cost savings of 20-40% and an impressive 83% accuracy in leak detection.
A memory-leak detector that blocks harmful resource recommendations could revolutionize how Kubernetes manages container workloads, preventing costly over-provisioning.
Kubernetes is the standard platform for orchestrating containerized applications, yet resource management remains difficult. To stay safe, engineers over-provision CPU and memory, leaving reserved but unused capacity that is the main source of wasted cost. The built-in Horizontal and Vertical Pod Autoscalers are reactive: they act only after a threshold is crossed, which causes lag, over-provisioning, and can mask software defects by granting a leaking workload more memory. Predictive autoscalers focus on improving forecasting accuracy or run inside proprietary infrastructure, and anomaly detection is used only to alert, never to block a harmful action. The Intelligent Cluster Optimizer is an open-source Kubernetes operator that right-sizes container workloads with safety as a first-class concern. Its central contribution is a five-layer safety pipeline where a memory-leak detector, based on linear regression with R^2 scoring, acts as a blocking gate: if a leak is detected the recommendation is rejected, so the optimizer never hides a bug by enlarging a broken container. The pipeline combines SLA monitoring, a circuit breaker, HPA/PDB conflict detection, and a policy engine, with rollback and dry-run mode for human approval. Recommendations are produced by percentile analysis and Holt-Winters forecasting, balanced through multi-objective Pareto optimization at the per-container level. We validated the system with 1118 automated tests at 80.3% coverage and a live deployment on Google Kubernetes Engine, where right-sizing produced estimated cost savings of 20--40% in what-if projections and the leak gate reached 83% detection accuracy.
