KubeDB

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Vertical Scale Weaviate Cluster

This guide will show you how to use the KubeDB Ops Manager to update the resources (CPU and Memory) of a Weaviate cluster.

Before You Begin

  • At first, you need to have a Kubernetes cluster, and the kubectl command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster.

  • Install KubeDB in your cluster following the steps here.

  • You should be familiar with the following KubeDB concepts:

To keep things isolated, this tutorial uses a separate namespace called demo throughout this tutorial.

$ kubectl create ns demo
namespace/demo created

Note: YAML files used in this tutorial are stored in docs/examples/weaviate/scaling/vertical-scaling folder in GitHub repository kubedb/docs.

Deploy Weaviate

In this section, we are going to deploy a Weaviate cluster using KubeDB. Then, in the next section we will update the resources using a WeaviateOpsRequest.

apiVersion: kubedb.com/v1alpha2
kind: Weaviate
metadata:
  name: weaviate-sample
  namespace: demo
spec:
  version: 1.33.1
  replicas: 3
  storageType: Durable
  storage:
    storageClassName: longhorn
    accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
  podTemplate:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: weaviate
          resources:
            requests:
              cpu: 500m
              memory: 1Gi
            limits:
              cpu: 500m
              memory: 1Gi
  deletionPolicy: WipeOut

Let’s create the Weaviate CR and wait for it to become Ready:

$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.10.12/docs/examples/weaviate/scaling/vertical-scaling/weaviate.yaml
weaviate.kubedb.com/weaviate-sample created

$ kubectl get weaviate -n demo
NAME              TYPE                  VERSION   STATUS   AGE
weaviate-sample   kubedb.com/v1alpha2   1.33.1    Ready    5m

Let’s check the current resources of one of the pods:

$ kubectl get pod -n demo weaviate-sample-0 -o jsonpath='{.spec.containers[0].resources}'
{"limits":{"cpu":"500m","memory":"1Gi"},"requests":{"cpu":"500m","memory":"1Gi"}}

Apply Vertical Scaling on the Weaviate Cluster

Here, we are going to update the resources of the cluster to meet the resources after vertical scaling.

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: WeaviateOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: wvops-vertical-scale
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: VerticalScaling
  databaseRef:
    name: weaviate-sample
  verticalScaling:
    node:
      resources:
        requests:
          memory: "2Gi"
          cpu: "1"
        limits:
          memory: "2Gi"
          cpu: "1"
  timeout: 5m
  apply: IfReady
  • spec.type specifies that this is a VerticalScaling operation.
  • spec.databaseRef.name specifies that we are performing the operation on weaviate-sample.
  • spec.verticalScaling.node specifies the desired resources for the Weaviate nodes after scaling.
  • spec.verticalScaling.mode specifies how the scaling is actuated — Restart (default, restarts the Pods) or InPlace (resizes the running Pods without a restart, falling back to restart if a Node can’t fit the new resources). See Vertical Scaling Modes.

Let’s create the WeaviateOpsRequest CR:

$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.10.12/docs/examples/weaviate/scaling/vertical-scaling/ops-request.yaml
weaviateopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/wvops-vertical-scale created

The Ops Manager will update the PetSet resources and restart the pods one by one to apply the new resources.

$ kubectl get weaviateopsrequest -n demo wvops-vertical-scale
NAME                   TYPE              STATUS       AGE
wvops-vertical-scale   VerticalScaling   Successful   2m

Let’s look at the status.conditions of the WeaviateOpsRequest:

$ kubectl get weaviateopsrequest -n demo wvops-vertical-scale -o yaml
apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: WeaviateOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: wvops-vertical-scale
  namespace: demo
spec:
  apply: IfReady
  databaseRef:
    name: weaviate-sample
  maxRetries: 1
  timeout: 5m
  type: VerticalScaling
  verticalScaling:
    node:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpu: "1"
          memory: 2Gi
        requests:
          cpu: "1"
          memory: 2Gi
status:
  conditions:
  - message: Weaviate ops-request has started to vertically scaling the Weaviate nodes
    reason: VerticalScaling
    status: "True"
    type: VerticalScaling
  - message: Successfully updated PetSets Resources
    reason: UpdatePetSets
    status: "True"
    type: UpdatePetSets
  - message: get pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:weaviate-sample-0
    status: "True"
    type: GetPod--weaviate-sample-0
  - message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:weaviate-sample-0
    status: "True"
    type: EvictPod--weaviate-sample-0
  - message: running pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:weaviate-sample-0
    status: "True"
    type: RunningPod--weaviate-sample-0
  - message: get pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:weaviate-sample-1
    status: "True"
    type: GetPod--weaviate-sample-1
  - message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:weaviate-sample-1
    status: "True"
    type: EvictPod--weaviate-sample-1
  - message: running pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:weaviate-sample-1
    status: "True"
    type: RunningPod--weaviate-sample-1
  - message: get pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:weaviate-sample-2
    status: "True"
    type: GetPod--weaviate-sample-2
  - message: evict pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:weaviate-sample-2
    status: "True"
    type: EvictPod--weaviate-sample-2
  - message: running pod; ConditionStatus:True; PodName:weaviate-sample-2
    status: "True"
    type: RunningPod--weaviate-sample-2
  - message: Successfully Restarted Pods With Resources
    reason: RestartPods
    status: "True"
    type: RestartPods
  - message: Successfully completed the vertical scaling for Weaviate
    reason: Successful
    status: "True"
    type: Successful
  observedGeneration: 1
  phase: Successful

Now, let’s verify the resources of the cluster have been updated:

$ kubectl get pod -n demo weaviate-sample-0 -o jsonpath='{.spec.containers[0].resources}'
{"limits":{"cpu":"1","memory":"2Gi"},"requests":{"cpu":"1","memory":"2Gi"}}

$ kubectl get weaviate -n demo weaviate-sample -o jsonpath='{.spec.podTemplate.spec.containers[0].resources}'
{"limits":{"cpu":"1","memory":"2Gi"},"requests":{"cpu":"1","memory":"2Gi"}}

The resources have been updated successfully.

In-Place Vertical Scaling

To resize the Pods without a restart, set spec.verticalScaling.mode to InPlace in the WeaviateOpsRequest. The operator resizes the running containers via the Kubernetes pods/resize subresource and only restarts a Pod if its Node cannot accommodate the new resources.

apiVersion: ops.kubedb.com/v1alpha1
kind: WeaviateOpsRequest
metadata:
  name: wvops-vertical-scale-inplace
  namespace: demo
spec:
  type: VerticalScaling
  databaseRef:
    name: weaviate-sample
  verticalScaling:
    mode: InPlace
    node:
      resources:
        requests:
          memory: "2Gi"
          cpu: "1"
        limits:
          memory: "2Gi"
          cpu: "1"
  timeout: 5m
  apply: IfReady

Apply it the same way as above:

$ kubectl create -f https://github.com/kubedb/docs/raw/v2026.10.12/docs/examples/weaviate/scaling/vertical-scaling/ops-request-inplace.yaml
weaviateopsrequest.ops.kubedb.com/wvops-vertical-scale-inplace created

The resources update in place with no Pod restart.

Next Steps

Cleaning Up

To clean up the Kubernetes resources created by this tutorial, run:

$ kubectl delete weaviateopsrequest -n demo wvops-vertical-scale
$ kubectl delete weaviate -n demo weaviate-sample
$ kubectl delete ns demo

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