Create a Scaling Group Using the Auto Scale Control Panel

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The Concepts article reviews what Auto Scale is and the core concepts that drive it. This article discusses how to set the parameters for scaling policies through the scaling group configuration.

Create a scaling group

Log in to the Cloud Control Panel.
In the top navigation bar, click Select a Product > Rackspace Cloud.
Click Servers > Auto Scale.
Click Create Group.
Specify a value for the following fields:
- Group Name: Specify a meaningful name for the scaling group. In grey
  text under the text box, the names of potential servers, reflecting
  the group name, are displayed.
- Region: Select the cloud data center that houses your cloud servers.
  Currently, you cannot scale across data centers; all of the servers
  in a scaling group must be in the same data center.
- Minimum Cooldown: Specify a timeframe.
- Minimum n active servers: Specify the minimum number of servers for
  the scaling group, regardless of policy execution. For example, if a
  policy to decrease servers is triggered, but the group already has the
  configured minimum number of active servers, no servers are removed.
- Maximum n active servers: Specify the maximum number of servers
  allowed in the scaling group, regardless of policy execution. For
  example, if a policy to add servers is triggered, and the group
  already has the configured maximum number of servers, no servers are
  added.
In Select Image choose the image that will be used on the servers.
Click Select Flavor and select the Flavor Class for the servers in
the scaling group that corresponds to the server image that you selected.
Use the widget to adjust the size for the servers.
Click Select Flavor.
Click Select Networks and choose select the networks for the servers in the
scaling group. Defaults are PublicNet and ServiceNet.

Note: Other network selections are displayed if you have created them
previously. You must include the ServiceNet network in your
configuration if you are going to use a load balancer so the load balancer
can retrieve the IP address of new servers.
When you are done, click Select Networks.

(Optional) Click Select Load Balancer and select from the available
load balancers. If no load balancers appear, click the Servers > Load
Balancers tab to create and save a load balancer.

(Optional) Select the load balancer and enter a value for Server Port.
When done, click Select Load Balancer.

Note: An invalid load balancer configuration will prevent servers from
being created in a scale-up.
Select a scaling policy. If no scaling policies exist, check the following
article: Create a scaling
policy.
When you are done, click Create Scaling Group. When the scaling group
is created, the status changes to Active.

About the Auto Scale control panel

Following are a couple of things you should know about Auto Scale control panel:

On the scaling groups list, you can filter by region, or choose All Regions
(Global) to see all scaling groups available. Default region displayed is
United States.
The gear icon provides a menu of editing options.
A status page is available when you click on a specific scaling group, load
balancer, or policy with options to edit.
You can hover your mouse over the underlined dotted options and see a tooltip
or information about the setting. Also, over the question marks to get
information.
You can use the edit pencil to open a configuration area and make changes to
an existing configuration.
When you select a server flavor there will be a dollar sign cost icon. Hover
over to get pricing information.
Links take you to a status or configuration page for the linked item. However,
the configuration page that opens might be outside of the Servers > Auto
Scale page and in a different area of the Cloud Control Panel. For
example, clicking a load balancer link takes you to the status page for that
load balancer under the top-level Load Balancer page.

User Guide sections

Updated 12 months ago