---
title: Replica
id: replica
date: 2023-06-11
full_link: 
short_description: >
  Replicas are copies of pods, ensuring availability, scalability, and fault tolerance by maintaining identical instances.
aka: 
tags:
- fundamental
- workload
---
A copy or duplicate of a {{< glossary_tooltip text="Pod" term_id="pod" >}} or
a set of pods. Replicas ensure high availability, scalability, and fault tolerance
by maintaining multiple identical instances of a pod.

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Replicas are commonly used in Kubernetes to achieve the desired application state and reliability.
They enable workload scaling and distribution across multiple nodes in a cluster.

By defining the number of replicas in a Deployment or ReplicaSet, Kubernetes ensures that
the specified number of instances are running, automatically adjusting the count as needed.

Replica management allows for efficient load balancing, rolling updates, and
self-healing capabilities in a Kubernetes cluster.