EKS Articles & Guides

Welcome to the Amazon EKS knowledge base. Here you will find hands-on guides, architectural blueprints, Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform) modules, and practical production patterns for running Kubernetes workloads on AWS.

---

🚀 Cluster Setup & Automation

• Build Your First EKS Cluster with Terraform
  Step-by-step guide to provisioning a production-ready EKS cluster with VPC, managed node groups, VPC-CNI prefix delegation, and AWS Load Balancer Controller.

• Complete EKS Cluster with Terraform & ALB
  End-to-end Terraform deployment architecture to spin up a fully functional EKS cluster with Application Load Balancer integration.

• EKS Auto Mode with Terraform
  Explore AWS-managed compute, storage, and networking with EKS Auto Mode, built-in Karpenter, and API-based access management.

---

⚡ Karpenter Autoscaling

• EKS with Karpenter Autoscaling (v1)
  Fast, cost-efficient, node autoscaling using Karpenter v1 with Bottlerocket and AL2023 EC2NodeClasses, Spot instances, and consolidation.

• Karpenter Custom NodePool as Default
  Configure weighted NodePools to prioritize custom compute architectures, Spot instances, or Reserved Instance / Savings Plan commitments over default pools.

• Karpenter — Deploy to a Specific Node Type
  Target specific workloads (e.g. Memory-Optimized Spot instances) using NodePool taints, tolerations, and nodeSelector.

---

🌐 Networking, Ingress & Gateway API

• EKS Auto & Karpenter with VPC Secondary IP
  Overcome IPv4 address exhaustion by provisioning pods onto a secondary VPC CIDR block using VPC-CNI custom networking and ENIConfigs.

• Gateway API (Envoy) with EKS Network Load Balancer
  Implement Kubernetes Gateway API using Envoy Gateway, provisioning an AWS NLB with IP-target routing and client IP preservation.

• EKS Cluster with Ingress-NGINX Controller
  Deploy Ingress-NGINX on EKS backed by an AWS Network Load Balancer in IP mode with direct pod traffic delivery and Prometheus metrics.

• EKS Configuring ALB to Avoid Timeouts During Deployment
  Tune deregistration delays, readiness gates, and preStop hooks to prevent 502/504 errors during rolling deployments with AWS ALB.

---

🔐 Security, IAM & Controllers

• EKS Pod Identity Guide
  Map Kubernetes ServiceAccounts directly to AWS IAM roles with EKS Pod Identity — simplifying multi-cluster management and eliminating OIDC setup.

• AWS Controllers for Kubernetes (ACK) Getting Started
  Manage native AWS resources (IAM roles, S3 buckets) directly from Kubernetes manifests using ACK and EKS Pod Identity.

• ECR Registry Cross-Account Access
  Configure ECR repository policies and node IAM permissions to pull container images securely across separate AWS accounts.

• Mount Secrets as Environment Variables via CSI Driver
  Integrate AWS Secrets Manager with EKS using the Secrets Store CSI Driver and environment variable mounting.

---

💾 Storage & File Systems

• How to Mount AWS S3 Files on EKS
  Mount Amazon S3 buckets as high-performance, NFS-compatible cached file systems on EKS using the AWS EFS CSI Driver (v3.0+) and Pod Identity.

---

📋 Planning & Operations Reference

• EKS Deployment & Architecture Planning Guide
  A comprehensive planning checklist covering VPC topology, compute strategy, identity, ingress, stateful storage, security, and GitOps workflows.

• EKS Cheat Sheet & Troubleshooting Reference
  Essential CLI commands for kubectl, Karpenter v1, EKS Pod Identity, VPC CNI diagnostics, and AWS CLI cluster administration.

• EKS Add-on Management
  Discover, inspect configurations, and manage upgrades for AWS-managed and third-party EKS add-ons.