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I have created a Kubernetes autoscaler , but I need to change its parameters. How do I update it?

I've tried the following, but it fails:

✗ kubectl autoscale -f docker/production/web-controller.yaml --min=2 --max=6
Error from server: horizontalpodautoscalers.extensions "web" already exists
You can always interactively edit the resources in your cluster. For your autoscale controller called web, you can edit it via:
kubectl edit hpa web
If you're looking for a more programmatic way to update your horizontal pod autoscaler, you would have better luck describing your autoscaler entity in a yaml file, as well. For example, here's a simple Replication Controller, paired with a Horizontal Pod Autoscale entity:
 apiVersion: v1
 kind: ReplicationController
 metadata:
   name: nginx
 spec:
   replicas: 2
   template:
     metadata:
       labels:
         run: nginx
     spec:
       containers:
       - name: nginx
         image: nginx
         ports:
         - containerPort: 80
 apiVersion: autoscaling/v1
 kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler
 metadata:
   name: nginx
   namespace: default
 spec:
   maxReplicas: 3
   minReplicas: 2
   scaleTargetRef:
     apiVersion: v1
     kind: ReplicationController
     name: nginx
With those contents in a file called nginx.yaml, updating the autoscaler could be done via kubectl apply -f nginx.yaml.
                To delete just one of the deployments in a larger hpa config, run kubectl delete hpa <DEPLOYMENT NAME>.
– avocade
                May 4, 2017 at 10:46
                does the autoscaler work with deployments as it does for replicationController ? like spec.scaleTargetRef.kind with Deployment value ?
– Ben
                Jun 22, 2017 at 20:34
                If you'd like to get your autoscale command as a yaml, do kubectl autoscale deploy/your-deployment --cpu-percent=90 --min=2 --max=10 --dry-run -o yaml
– FooBar
                Apr 19, 2022 at 23:49
You can use the kubectl patch command as well, to see its current status
kubectl get hpa <autoscaler-name-here> -o json
An example output:
"apiVersion": "autoscaling/v1",
"kind": "HorizontalPodAutoscaler",
"metadata": {
    "name": "your-auto-scaler",
    "namespace": "your-namespace",
"spec": {
    "maxReplicas": 50,
    "minReplicas": 2,
    "scaleTargetRef": {
        "apiVersion": "extensions/v1beta1",
        "kind": "Deployment",
        "name": "your-deployment"
    "targetCPUUtilizationPercentage": 40
"status": {
    "currentReplicas": 1,
    "desiredReplicas": 2,
    "lastScaleTime": "2017-12-13T16:23:41Z"
If you want to update the minimum number of replicas:
kubectl -n your-namespace patch hpa your-auto-scaler --patch '{"spec":{"minReplicas":1}}'
The same logic applies to other parameters found in the autoscaler configuration, change minReplicas to maxReplicas if you want to update the maximum number of allowed replicas.
                If you'd like to get your autoscale command as a yaml, do k autoscale deploy/your-deployment --cpu-percent=90 --min=2 --max=10 --dry-run -o yaml
– FooBar
                Apr 19, 2022 at 23:49
I tried multiple options but the one which works the best is
First delete the existing hpa
kubectl delete hpa web
then recreate another one
kubectl autoscale -f docker/production/web-controller.yaml --min=2 --max=6
        
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