Set up an Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) cluster

Learn how to set up an EKS Cluster

This guide walks you through installing an Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) cluster. If you need more information, refer to Create an Amazon EKS cluster

Prerequisites

Deploy an EKS cluster

  1. In the terminal, log into AWS.

    aws configure
    
  2. Create a new file called cluster-config.yaml and add the content below to it, replacing [your_cluster_name], [your_cluster_region], and [your_k8s_version] with the appropriate values:

    apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
    kind: ClusterConfig
    
    metadata:
      name: [your_cluster_name]
      region: [your_cluster_region]
      version: [your_k8s_version]
      tags:
        karpenter.sh/discovery: [your_cluster_name]
    
    iam:
      withOIDC: true
    
    managedNodeGroups:
      - name: mng-od-4vcpu-8gb
        desiredCapacity: 2
        minSize: 1
        maxSize: 5
        instanceType: c5.xlarge
        privateNetworking: true
    
    addons:
      - name: vpc-cni 
        attachPolicyARNs:
          - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEKS_CNI_Policy
      - name: coredns
        version: latest 
      - name: kube-proxy
        version: latest
      - name: aws-ebs-csi-driver
        wellKnownPolicies: 
          ebsCSIController: true
    
  3. Create the cluster by running the following command:

    eksctl create cluster -f cluster.yaml
    
  4. Verify the kubectl context:

    kubectl config current-context
    

Add Dapr requirements for sidecar access and default storage class:

  1. Update the security group rule to allow the EKS cluster to communicate with the Dapr Sidecar by creating an inbound rule for port 4000.

    aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --region [your_aws_region] \
    --group-id [your_security_group] \
    --protocol tcp \
    --port 4000 \
    --source-group [your_security_group]
    
  2. Add a default storage class if you don’t have one:

kubectl patch storageclass gp2 -p '{"metadata": {"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"true"}}}'

Install Dapr

Install Dapr on your cluster by running:

dapr init -k

You should see the following response:

⌛  Making the jump to hyperspace...
ℹ️  Note: To install Dapr using Helm, see here: https://docs.dapr.io/getting-started/install-dapr-kubernetes/#install-with-helm-advanced

ℹ️  Container images will be pulled from Docker Hub
✅  Deploying the Dapr control plane with latest version to your cluster...
✅  Deploying the Dapr dashboard with latest version to your cluster...
✅  Success! Dapr has been installed to namespace dapr-system. To verify, run `dapr status -k' in your terminal. To get started, go here: https://docs.dapr.io/getting-started

Troubleshooting

Access permissions

If you face any access permissions, make sure you are using the same AWS profile that was used to create the cluster. If needed, update the kubectl configuration with the correct profile. More information here:

aws eks --region [your_aws_region] update-kubeconfig --name [your_eks_cluster_name] --profile [your_profile_name]