From 8d6d79c237e598827052fb21d1248fd892ec5b74 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "mintlify[bot]" <109931778+mintlify[bot]@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 12 May 2026 15:08:47 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] docs: document strict spot capacity behavior for node groups --- cloud-accounts/node-groups.mdx | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+) diff --git a/cloud-accounts/node-groups.mdx b/cloud-accounts/node-groups.mdx index 50d1df3..29e19df 100644 --- a/cloud-accounts/node-groups.mdx +++ b/cloud-accounts/node-groups.mdx @@ -130,6 +130,30 @@ Create custom node groups for specialized workloads like GPU processing, high-me --- +## Spot Instances + +Spot node groups run exclusively on spot capacity. Porter configures spot node groups with a strict capacity type, meaning they will only provision spot instances and will not fall back to on-demand instances if spot capacity is unavailable. + + +Because there is no on-demand fallback, applications running on spot node groups must tolerate spot interruptions. Configure proper [health checks](/applications/configure/zero-downtime-deployments#health-checks) and ensure workloads can be safely rescheduled when spot instances are reclaimed. + + +When to use spot: + +- Stateless, fault-tolerant workloads (e.g., batch jobs, background workers) +- Development or staging environments where occasional interruptions are acceptable +- Workloads with sufficient replicas to handle node terminations gracefully + +When not to use spot: + +- Stateful services without redundancy +- Latency-sensitive workloads that cannot tolerate restarts +- Long-running jobs that cannot checkpoint progress + +To run a workload on spot capacity, create a custom node group with the **Fixed Instance Type** option and select a spot-enabled instance type, then [assign your application](#assigning-workloads-to-node-groups) to that node group. + +--- + ## Assigning Workloads to Node Groups Once your custom node group is created, assign applications to run on it: