Generally available: Scale-down mode in AKS
Published date: 27 April, 2022
When a node is deallocated, the attached storage, as well as the container image, is still present on the node. When scaling up your deployments, all deallocated nodes will be started first, before provisioning new nodes. This allows for faster operation speeds as your deployment leverages cached images. Scale-down mode allows you to no longer have to pre-provision nodes and pre-pull container images.
With the move of preview to GA, scale-down mode now supports spot node pools.
For more info, visit: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/aks/scale-down-mode