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Overview of Amazon EKS | Quick Guide

Gursimran Singh | 06 Mar 2023

Amazon EKS Kubernetes Services

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is open-source software that allows the user to deploy and manage containerized applications on a scale. In AWS it manages clusters of EC2 compute instances and runs containers on those instances with deployment, scaling, and maintenance processes. Using it, we can run containerized applications which are of any kind using the same toolset on-premises and in the Cloud. AWS makes it easy to run it in the Cloud with highly-available and scalable virtual machine infrastructure, EKS services, community-backed service integrations, managed Kubernetes service.
An open-source container orchestration engine and also an abstraction layer for managing full-stack operations of hosts and containers. Click to explore about, Architecture and its Components

How does Kubernetes work?

It used for maintaining a cluster of compute instances and programming containers to operate on the cluster based on the accessible compute resources and the fundamentals of each container. Containers are run in a logical grouping, which is known as Pods, and we can scale and run one or many containers together as a pod. It decides when and where to run the pods, manages traffic routing, and scales the pods based on utilization or other metrics that define. It automatically start pods based on the cluster's support requirements and automatically restarts pods if they or the instances they are running on fail. Each pod is given a single DNS name and an IP address, which uses to connect users' services and external traffic by it.

Why use it?

Kubernetes is an open-source project which has big communities, we can use it to run containerized applications anywhere without needing to change our operational tooling. Additionally, many additional open-source projects and vendors build and maintain Kubernetes -compatible software that we can use to improve and extend the application architecture.

What is Amazon EKS?

It is a managed service by Amazon that makes it straightforward to administer it on AWS without requiring to stand up or manage their control plane. Amazon EKS runs its control plane instances across Availability Zones for implementing high availability. Amazon EKS automatically detects and replaces unhealthy control plane instances, and provides automated version upgrades. Amazon EKS also has other AWS services integrated for providing Security and Scalability for user's applications, including the following -
  • Amazon VPC for isolation
  • Elastic Load Balancing
  • IAM for authentication
  • Amazon ECR for container images
Amazon EKS runs up-to-date versions of open-source software so that we can use all the existing plugins and tools from the community. Applications that are running on Amazon EKS are fully compatible with applications running on any standard environment. This means that we can easily migrate any standard application to Amazon EKS without any modification of code required. Getting started with Amazon EKS is as easy as a piece of cake; just follow the below steps to deploy Kubernetes application in the EKS cluster.
  • First, create an Amazon EKS cluster in the AWS Management Console or with one of the AWS SDK or AWS CLI.
  • Then, launch worker nodes that register with the Amazon EKS cluster. AWS provides an AWS CloudFormation template that automatically configures the nodes.
  • When the cluster is ready, configure the favorite tools(Kubectl, for example) to communicate with the cluster.
  • At last, Deploy and manage applications on Amazon EKS cluster in the same way that would with any other Kubernetes environment.

How does Amazon EKS work?

EKS clusters comprise of two main components—a control plane and worker nodes. Every cluster runs in its own, fully managed Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). The control plane is comprised of three master nodes, each running in a different AZ to ensure AWS's high availability. Incoming traffic led to its API passing through the AWS network load balancer.

Worker nodes run on Amazon EC2 instances found in a VPC, which AWS does not manage. You can control and configure the VPC allocated for worker nodes. You can use an SSH to access your existing automation or provision worker nodes. There are two main deployment options. You can deploy one cluster for any environment or application. Or, you can define IAM security policies and Kubernetes namespaces for deploying one cluster for multiple applications.

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A Comprehensive Approach

What is the Amazon EKS cluster?

An Amazon EKS cluster consists of two primary components:

  • The Amazon EKS control plane
  • Amazon EKS nodes that are registered with the control plane
    Read more...

What is the difference between EC2 and EKS?

Amazon EC2 Container Service lets you launch and stop container-enabled applications with API calls, allows you to enquire about the state of your cluster from a centralized service, and gives you access to many Amazon EC2 features. On the other hand, Amazon EKS is a managed service that makes it easy for you to run it on an AWS-managed cloud without needing to install and operate your clusters.

What is the difference between AWS ECS and AWS EKS?

Amazon ECS is a scalable managed service that lets you run and orchestrate many containers. In contrast, Amazon EKS lets you run Kubernetes on AWS as a managed service while retaining compatibility with the open-source K8s project.

Read Next:

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