EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service)

💡 Definition

Amazon EKS is a managed Kubernetes service that makes it easy to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications using Kubernetes on AWS. Kubernetes is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.

🔑 Key Concepts

• Managed Kubernetes: AWS manages the Kubernetes control plane (master nodes) for you, abstracting away the operational complexity.
• Worker Nodes: You provision and manage the worker nodes (EC2 instances or Fargate tasks) where your containers run.
• Open-Source Standard: Uses native Kubernetes APIs and tooling, allowing you to use existing Kubernetes applications and tools.
• High Availability: The Kubernetes control plane is deployed across multiple AZs for high availability.

⚙️ How it Works

1. Create Cluster: EKS provisions a highly available Kubernetes control plane.
2. Add Worker Nodes: Launch EC2 instances or use Fargate to act as worker nodes.
3. Deploy Applications: Use standard Kubernetes tools (kubectl) to deploy your containerized applications onto the cluster.

🎯 Use Cases

• Container Orchestration: For customers already using Kubernetes or wanting to leverage its ecosystem.
• Microservices: Running complex microservices architectures.
• Hybrid Deployments: Integrating with on-premises Kubernetes clusters.

💰 Pricing Model

• EKS Control Plane: Charged per hour for each EKS cluster.
• Worker Nodes: You pay for the underlying resources (e.g., EC2 instances, Fargate vCPU/memory) that run your worker nodes.

📝 Exam Tips (CLF-C02)

• EKS is AWS's managed Kubernetes offering.
• It handles the Kubernetes control plane for you.
• Customers manage worker nodes (either EC2 or Fargate).
• Often compared to ECS (AWS-native container orchestration).

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See Also: * ECS * Fargate * EC2 * Containers