Kubernetes v1.36 rolls out Memory QoS (alpha). Opt-in memory reservation. Tiered protection by QoS class. Kubelet observability metrics. Kernel-version warnings.
It separates throttling from reservation. A feature gate enables throttling. A kubelet config field controls tiered cgroup v2 protection: Guaranteed = hard, Burstable = soft, BestEffort = reclaimable.
This split gives operators a safer rollout path. Operators can enable throttling, watch the impact, then enable reservations to shrink the hard-reserve footprint and cut OOM risk.
