Basic Kubernetes resource management fails when teams treat memory and CPU limits as identical controls. Misunderstanding the distinction between scheduling requests and cgroup limits leads to unexpected performance throttling, node evictions, and sudden OOM (Out-Of-Memory) kills with exit code 137.
Never set resource bounds without accounting for resource compressibility. Because CPU is compressible, breaching its limit triggers kernel throttling to slow down execution without killing the container; memory is non-compressible, meaning exceeding its limit causes the kernel to OOM kill the process immediately. Set requests equal to limits for both CPU and memory to lock in the Guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) class, shielding critical workloads from eviction during node pressure.
This operational strategy stabilizes runtime behavior, eliminates surprise container restarts, and ensures mission-critical microservices retain top scheduling priority across your cluster.
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