These guides cover ACK cluster build, node pools and OpenTofu state, plus how cluster cost is allocated. They are not a Kubernetes getting-started course.
Platform engineers building Alibaba Cloud ACK, and FinOps teams who already run EKS, AKS, GKE or ACK and need chargeback that finance will accept.
Source code: VigilesHQ Alibaba Cloud ACK repository
Two people applying the same stack from two laptops will eventually both think they hold the latest state. One apply refreshes, the other writes an older serial, and a node pool disappears because the second plan never saw it. The fix is a private OSS object per stack and a TableStore row that only one OpenTofu process can hold. Do that before the migration. The first collision is too late.
CoreDNS, the Terway daemon and the cluster autoscaler components have a different failure budget from the application. If a Spot node disappears, the API should reschedule. If the only node running CoreDNS disappears, every lookup in the cluster fails until a replacement is Ready. This page splits those two budgets for the private ACK cluster described in Build a secure Alibaba Cloud ACK cluster with OpenTofu.
Build private Alibaba Cloud ACK clusters with OpenTofu, secure node pools, Spot autoscaling, OSS state locking and private Argo CD.
The example is a private API in ap-southeast-1, three zones, and pod egress that leaves nodes without a public address. The complete OpenTofu example is available in the VigilesHQ Alibaba Cloud ACK repository. VPC 172.21.0.0/16 and names such as vpc-example are stand-ins. A real apply uses the account GetCallerIdentity returns.
The worksheet on this site is the Kubernetes cost allocation calculator. A spend jump on the cluster is Kubernetes cluster cost increase. The provider bills: It cannot see that namespace/payments used 30% of a node's CPU unless you export in-cluster usage and join it to the node SKU price. That join is cost allocation. The FinOps Framework calls this allocation. It is not the same as a discount.
Scoped review for this topic: FinOps consulting.