<p>I am aware that it is possible to enable the master node to execute pods and that is my concern. Since the default configuration is do not allow the master to run pods. Should I change it? What is the reason for the default configuration as it is?</p>

<p>If the change can be performed in some situations. I would like to ask if my cluster in one of these. It has only three nodes with exactly the same hardware and possibly more nodes are not going to be added in the foreseeable future. In my opinion, as I have three equal nodes, it will be a waste of resources to use 1/3 of my cluster computational power to run the kubernetes master. Am I right?</p>

<p>[Edit1]</p>

<p>I have found the following reason in Kubernets documentation.
<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/BGndB.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/BGndB.png" alt="enter image description here"></a>
It is, the security, the only reason?</p>

Rodolfo
<p>Technically, it doesn't need to run on a dedicated node. But for your Kubernetes cluster to run, you need your masters to work properly. And one of the ways how to ensure it can be secure, stable and perform well is to use separate node which runs only the master components and not regular pod. If you share the node with different pods, there could be several ways how it can impact the master. For example:</p>

<ul>
<li>The other pods will impact the perforamnce of the masters (network or disk latencies, CPU cache etc.)</li>
<li>They migth be a security risk (if someone manages to hack from some other pod into the master node)</li>
<li>A badly written application can cause stability issues to the node</li>
</ul>

<p>While it can be seen as wasting resources, you can also see it as a price to pay for the stability of your master / Kubernetes cluster. However, it doesn't have to be waste of 1/3 of resources. Depending on how you deploy your Kubernetes cluster you can use different hosts for different nodes. So for example you can use small host for the master and bigger nodes for the workers.</p>
