Bin Packing - CI/CD Glossary Definition
Bin packing is the scheduling strategy of placing as many jobs (or containers) onto each machine as will fit, to maximize utilization and minimize the number of machines running. It is the optimization a cluster scheduler performs when deciding which node receives a pod or job.
Cost vs isolation
Tight bin packing lowers cost by keeping fewer machines busy, but packing too densely causes resource contention (the noisy-neighbor problem) where one job starves another for CPU, memory, or disk I/O. CI workloads with spiky resource use often need looser packing or dedicated runners for heavy jobs.
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