eks-automode-onboard

name	eks-automode-onboard
description	Onboarding guide for EKS Auto Mode newcomers. Use when the user asks about EKS Auto Mode concepts, wants to deploy their first Auto Mode cluster, needs help picking an example, or hits common first-day issues. Triggers: what is Auto Mode, how do I deploy, which example, getting started, first cluster, deploy this repo, Auto Mode tutorial, onboard, walkthrough.
user-invocable	true

EKS Auto Mode Onboarding

Help users go from zero to a running EKS Auto Mode cluster using this repository. Cover concepts, deployment, example selection, and first-encounter troubleshooting.

What EKS Auto Mode manages for you

EKS Auto Mode runs these components inside the AWS-managed control plane so you never install, configure, or upgrade them:

Component	What it does
Karpenter	Provisions, scales, and consolidates EC2 compute
VPC CNI	Pod networking, IP allocation, security groups
EBS CSI driver	Persistent volume provisioning from PVCs
ALB controller	Creates ALBs/NLBs from Ingress and Service resources
CoreDNS	Cluster DNS (runs as a node-level service, not pods)
Pod Identity Agent	Fine-grained IAM for pods without manual IRSA
Node health monitor	Detects and replaces unhealthy nodes
AMI lifecycle	Picks correct AMI, patches weekly, remediates drift

You interact via standard K8s APIs (NodePool, NodeClass, Ingress, StorageClass). AWS handles the operational lifecycle behind those APIs.

Which example should I use?

Use case	Example directory	What it deploys
First deployment / validation	examples/graviton/	2048 game on ARM64 Graviton
Fault-tolerant batch / dev	examples/spot/	2048 game on Spot instances
ML inference (NVIDIA GPU)	examples/gpu/	Qwen 3 on GPU
ML inference (Inferentia2)	examples/neuron/	DeepSeek-R1-Qwen3-8B via vLLM
OD + Spot mix with headroom	examples/cost-optimization/	Weighted priority pools + pause-pod
Pin to reserved capacity	examples/capacity-reservation/	ODCR-targeted NodePool
Fixed always-on fleet	examples/static-capacity/	spec.replicas nodes, no consolidation
Protect long-running jobs	examples/batch-jobs/	do-not-disrupt annotation pattern
Limit drain concurrency	examples/disruption-budgets/	NodePool disruption budget config
CPU autoscaling + SQS-driven	examples/pod-autoscaling/	HPA + KEDA ScaledObjects
Metrics, logs, tracing	examples/observability/	CloudWatch Container Insights

Start with examples/graviton/ if you just want to validate the cluster works.

Deployment steps

1. Clone

git clone https://github.com/aws-samples/sample-aws-eks-auto-mode.git && cd sample-aws-eks-auto-mode

2. Configure variables

Edit terraform/terraform.tfvars (or pass -var flags). The important variables:

Variable	Purpose	Default
name	Cluster and VPC name	automode-cluster
region	AWS region	us-west-2
eks_cluster_version	K8s version (minimum 1.29 for Auto Mode)	1.34
tags	Tags applied everywhere via 5-layer pattern	{"auto-delete"="never"}
base_domain	Route53 zone for public HTTPS (leave empty for internal-only)	""
enable_observability	CloudWatch Container Insights	false

3. Deploy

cd terraform && terraform init && terraform apply -auto-approve

Terraform creates the VPC, EKS cluster, IAM roles, NodePools, NodeClasses, StorageClasses, and IngressClasses. Takes 12-18 minutes.

4. Configure kubectl

$(terraform output -raw configure_kubectl)

5. Validate

kubectl get nodes                   # Should show zero nodes (no workloads yet)
kubectl get nodepools               # Shows general-purpose + any custom pools
kubectl get nodeclasses             # Shows default + any custom classes
kubectl get storageclass            # Should list ebs-csi class
kubectl get ingressclass            # Should list alb class

6. Deploy an example

kubectl apply -f examples/graviton/
kubectl get pods -n game-2048 -w    # Watch Auto Mode provision a Graviton node

A node appears within 60-90 seconds. The pod transitions to Running once the node joins and passes readiness checks.

Key concepts

What you manage vs what AWS manages

You manage	AWS manages
NodePool specs (instance families, AZs, taints)	Actual instance launches + termination
NodeClass specs (tags, storage config)	AMI selection, patching, drift remediation
Ingress / Service manifests	ALB/NLB creation, TLS termination, target registration
PVC manifests + StorageClass	EBS volume provisioning, attach, detach
Pod specs and scheduling constraints	Node health monitoring + auto-repair
Cluster version upgrades (EKS console/API)	Component version upgrades (Karpenter, CNI, CSI, CoreDNS)

NodePool and NodeClass relationship

NodePool (what to launch)         NodeClass (how to launch)
- instance families               - subnet discovery rules
- architectures (amd64/arm64)     - security group discovery
- capacity types (on-demand/spot) - ephemeral storage config
- taints and labels               - tags pushed to EC2/EBS/ENI
- disruption settings             - IMDS settings
- weight (priority)               - KMS key for storage
        |                                  |
        +---- nodeClassRef.name -----------+

A NodePool references exactly one NodeClass. Multiple NodePools can share a NodeClass.

The default NodePool and default NodeClass are AWS-managed. Do not edit the default NodeClass (changes revert silently within minutes). Create custom NodeClasses for durable customization.

Templatefile rendering chain

This repo uses Terraform's templatefile() to render K8s manifests:

nodepool-templates/*.yaml.tpl  (source templates)
       |
       v  terraform apply (templatefile + local_file)
       |
nodepools/*.yaml  (rendered manifests applied by kubectl_manifest)

If you edit a .tpl file, the rendered YAML does not update until you run terraform apply. Never edit the rendered YAML directly; it will be overwritten.

Common gotchas for newcomers

1. Pods stuck Pending -- check nodeSelector and node.kubernetes.io/instance-type labels. Auto Mode only provisions nodes that match a NodePool. If no pool matches your pod's constraints, it stays Pending forever.

2. EBS StorageClass provisioner name -- use ebs.csi.eks.amazonaws.com, NOT ebs.csi.aws.com. The latter is the self-managed driver. Auto Mode uses a different provisioner name.

3. Editing the default NodeClass -- your changes revert silently. Always create a named custom NodeClass.

4. Tags not landing on resources -- you need the IAM custom-tags policy (enable_auto_mode_custom_tags=true in the module). Without it, any custom tag key outside eks:*, kubernetes.io/*, karpenter.sh/* is silently denied.

5. No SSH/SSM access to nodes -- nodes are Bottlerocket and read-only. Use kubectl debug node/<name> or the NodeDiagnostic resource for troubleshooting.

6. Rendered YAML stale after template edit -- run terraform apply to re-render. Applying stale YAML silently reverts your fix.

7. LB not provisioning -- subnets need kubernetes.io/role/elb: "1" (public) or kubernetes.io/role/internal-elb: "1" (private) tags. This repo adds them automatically, but custom VPCs may not.

When to use the detailed references

• Concepts deep-dive (managed components, instance families, IMDS, disruption model): see references/concepts.md
• Full deployment walkthrough (prerequisites, variable reference, post-deploy validation, cleanup): see references/deployment-guide.md
• Troubleshooting (Pending pods, node join failures, tag issues, LB problems, storage errors): see references/troubleshooting.md
• Tagging patterns (5-layer model, IAM policy, known gaps): see claude-md/TAGGING.md
• Cleanup/teardown (drain order, orphan sweep, post-destroy verification): see claude-md/CLEANUP.md

Sources

• EKS Auto Mode overview
• Auto Mode reference
• Instance types in Auto Mode
• Create a NodePool
• Create a NodeClass
• Configure ALB
• Create StorageClass
• Troubleshooting Auto Mode
• Best practices for Auto Mode
• This repository