Consider that in addition to configuring the policies of the default scheduler, it is also possible to run multiple schedulers and allow Pods to specify which scheduler to place them. You can start another scheduler instance that is configured differently by giving it a unique name. Then when defining a Pod, just add the field  .spec.schedu lerName  with the name of your custom scheduler to the Pod specification and the Pod will be picked up by the custom scheduler only. Pods get assigned to nodes with certain capacities based on placement policies. For completeness, Figure 6-1 visualizes at a high level how these elements get together and the main steps a Pod goes through when being scheduled. Scheduling Process Figure 6-1. A Pod-to-node assignment process As soon as a Pod is created that is not assigned to a node yet, it gets picked by the scheduler together with all the available nodes and the set of filtering and priority policies. In the first stage, the scheduler applies the filtering policies and removes all nodes that do not qualify based on the Pod’s criteria. In the second stage, the remain‐ 50  |  Chapter 6: Automated Placement Priorities are rules that sort available nodes according to preferences. For exam‐ ple,  LeastRequestedPriority  gives nodes with fewer requested resources a higher priority.