Kubernetes on AWS EKS | Advanced Project Guide

Project Overview

Set up an Amazon EKS cluster, deploy containerized applications, configure ingress, and implement auto-scaling. Essential for modern microservices architectures.

Difficulty:: Advanced
AWS Services:: EKS, ECR, ALB Ingress Controller, Secrets Manager
Cost:: ~$130-220/month (EKS cluster + nodes)

Prerequisites

Docker fundamentals and container experience
Basic Kubernetes concepts (pods, services, deployments)
kubectl and eksctl installed locally
AWS CLI configured with appropriate permissions

Architecture

🌐

Internet

→

⚖

ALB Ingress

Controller

→

EKS Cluster

⎈

Pods

Containers

🖥

Node Group

Managed

📦

ECR

Images

🔐

Secrets Mgr

Secrets

Container Insights provides monitoring and logging

Step-by-Step Instructions

Create EKS Cluster

Use eksctl to create cluster: eksctl create cluster
Or use AWS Console/Terraform for more control
Configure VPC with public and private subnets
Create managed node group with appropriate instance types
Wait for cluster to be ready (~15-20 minutes)

Configure kubectl Access

Update kubeconfig: aws eks update-kubeconfig --name cluster-name
Verify connection: kubectl get nodes
Configure EKS access entries for additional users
Set up RBAC for team access

Deploy Your Application

Push container image to ECR
Create Kubernetes Deployment manifest
Create Service to expose the deployment
Apply manifests: kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml
Verify pods are running: kubectl get pods

Set Up ALB Ingress Controller

Install AWS Load Balancer Controller
Create IAM OIDC provider for the cluster
Create service account with appropriate IAM role
Deploy the controller using Helm
Create Ingress resource for your service

Implement Auto Scaling

Deploy Metrics Server for resource metrics
Create Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA)
Configure based on CPU or custom metrics
Set up Cluster Autoscaler for node scaling
Test scaling by generating load

Configure Logging and Monitoring

Enable Control Plane logging to CloudWatch
Deploy CloudWatch Container Insights
Set up Fluent Bit for application logs
Create CloudWatch dashboards and alarms
Consider Prometheus/Grafana for advanced monitoring

Tips

Use Fargate profiles for serverless pods - No node management for specific workloads
Apply Pod Security Standards via Pod Security Admission - Enforce security best practices for pods
Use namespaces for isolation - Separate environments and teams
Consider GitOps with ArgoCD or Flux - Declarative, version-controlled deployments

Code Examples

Create EKS Cluster with eksctl

cluster-config.yaml YAML

apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
kind: ClusterConfig

metadata:
  name: my-cluster
  region: us-east-1
  version: "1.34"

managedNodeGroups:
  - name: ng-1
    instanceType: t3.medium
    desiredCapacity: 2
    minSize: 1
    maxSize: 4
    volumeSize: 50
    ssh:
      allow: false
    iam:
      withAddonPolicies:
        albIngress: true
        cloudWatch: true

cloudWatch:
  clusterLogging:
    enableTypes: ["api", "audit", "authenticator"]

Kubernetes Deployment Manifest

deployment.yaml YAML

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: myapp
  labels:
    app: myapp
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: myapp
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: myapp
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: myapp
        image: 123456789.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/myapp:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080
        resources:
          requests:
            memory: "128Mi"
            cpu: "100m"
          limits:
            memory: "256Mi"
            cpu: "500m"
        livenessProbe:
          httpGet:
            path: /health
            port: 8080
          initialDelaySeconds: 30
          periodSeconds: 10
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: myapp-service
spec:
  type: ClusterIP
  selector:
    app: myapp
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 8080

ALB Ingress Configuration

ingress.yaml YAML

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: myapp-ingress
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: alb
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/scheme: internet-facing
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/target-type: ip
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/healthcheck-path: /health
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/certificate-arn: arn:aws:acm:us-east-1:123456789:certificate/xxx
spec:
  rules:
  - host: myapp.example.com
    http:
      paths:
      - path: /
        pathType: Prefix
        backend:
          service:
            name: myapp-service
            port:
              number: 80

Horizontal Pod Autoscaler

hpa.yaml YAML

apiVersion: autoscaling/v2
kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler
metadata:
  name: myapp-hpa
spec:
  scaleTargetRef:
    apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
    name: myapp
  minReplicas: 2
  maxReplicas: 10
  metrics:
  - type: Resource
    resource:
      name: cpu
      target:
        type: Utilization
        averageUtilization: 70
  - type: Resource
    resource:
      name: memory
      target:
        type: Utilization
        averageUtilization: 80

Essential kubectl Commands

Terminal Commands BASH

# Create cluster
eksctl create cluster -f cluster-config.yaml

# Update kubeconfig
aws eks update-kubeconfig --name my-cluster --region us-east-1

# Deploy application
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml
kubectl apply -f ingress.yaml

# Check status
kubectl get pods
kubectl get svc
kubectl get ingress

# View logs
kubectl logs -f deployment/myapp

# Scale deployment
kubectl scale deployment myapp --replicas=5

What You'll Learn

EKS cluster provisioning and management
Kubernetes networking on AWS (VPC CNI)
Pod autoscaling (HPA/VPA) and cluster autoscaling
AWS Load Balancer Controller and Ingress
Container Insights for monitoring and logging

Kubernetes on EKS