Cluster in Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)

Overview

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a managed service that makes it easy to run Kubernetes on AWS without needing to install and operate your own Kubernetes control plane or worker nodes.

What is a Cluster?

In the context of Amazon EKS, a cluster refers to the Kubernetes control plane and the compute infrastructure it manages. The control plane runs in an account managed by AWS, and the user manages the compute infrastructure.

Components of an EKS Cluster

Control Plane:
- Manages the Kubernetes API server and the backend persistence layer for the cluster’s state.
- It is managed by AWS and is highly available across multiple Availability Zones.
Worker Nodes:
- These are EC2 instances that run your application containers.
- You can manage these instances, or you can use AWS Fargate for a serverless option where you don't have to manage servers.
Kubernetes Resources:
- Such as pods, deployments, and services, are configured and deployed in the cluster.

Key Features

High Availability: Control plane runs across multiple AWS availability zones, ensuring high availability.
Security: Integrates with AWS security services like IAM for fine-grained access control.
Scalability: Supports large-scale container deployments.
Compatibility: Fully compatible with standard Kubernetes, ensuring easy migration of any standard Kubernetes application.

Use Cases

Running containerized applications at scale.
Microservices architecture deployment.
Integrating with AWS services and features for enhanced functionality.

EKS simplifies the process of running Kubernetes on AWS by abstracting away the complexity of setting up and managing the Kubernetes control plane and nodes.