Target Tracking vs Step Scaling Policies
~8 min read
The two dynamic scaling policy types and when the extra control of step scaling is actually worth the added configuration.
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Key points
- •Target tracking: declare a target metric value, AWS calculates and applies capacity changes automatically
- •Step scaling: explicitly define capacity change amounts tied to specific metric threshold ranges
- •Target tracking requires less tuning and fits most workloads by default
- •Step scaling is chosen when different load severities genuinely warrant disproportionately different-sized responses