AWS EKS Cluster Creation

This workflow automates the end-to-end setup of an Amazon EKS cluster using AWS CLI. It includes IAM role creation, VPC provisioning via CloudFormation, cluster deployment, and managed node group setup.

Step 1: IAM Role Creation

Create IAM Role for EKS Cluster

aws iam create-role --role-name "$CLUSTER_ROLE_NAME" \
  --assume-role-policy-document file://"$CLUSTER_TRUST_FILE"

This role is assumed by the EKS control plane. The AmazonEKSClusterPolicy is attached for required permissions.

Create IAM Role for Worker Nodes

aws iam create-role --role-name "$NODE_ROLE_NAME" \
  --assume-role-policy-document file://"$NODE_TRUST_FILE"

This EC2-assumed role is used by the worker nodes. It includes:

• AmazonEKSWorkerNodePolicy
• AmazonEC2ContainerRegistryReadOnly
• AmazonEKS_CNI_Policy

The script checks if roles exist before creating them and stores their ARNs for later use.

Step 2: VPC Provisioning via CloudFormation

aws cloudformation create-stack \
  --stack-name "$STACK_NAME" \
  --region "$REGION" \
  --template-url https://amazon-eks.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/cloudformation/2020-06-10/amazon-eks-vpc-sample.yaml \
  --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM

A default VPC is created using the official EKS sample template if it doesn't already exist. Subnet and security group IDs are extracted from the CloudFormation outputs.

Step 3: Create the EKS Cluster

aws eks create-cluster \
  --name "$CLUSTER_NAME" \
  --region "$REGION" \
  --kubernetes-version "$K8S_VERSION" \
  --role-arn "$CLUSTER_ROLE_ARN" \
  --resources-vpc-config subnetIds=$SUBNET1,$SUBNET2,securityGroupIds=$SECURITY_GROUP_ID

The cluster is created in the VPC subnets with the specified IAM role. The script waits until the cluster status is ACTIVE.

Step 4: Configure kubectl

aws eks update-kubeconfig --region "$REGION" --name "$CLUSTER_NAME"

This updates your kubeconfig so you can access the new cluster using kubectl.

Step 5: Create a Managed Node Group

aws eks create-nodegroup \
  --cluster-name "$CLUSTER_NAME" \
  --region "$REGION" \
  --nodegroup-name "$NODE_GROUP_NAME" \
  --subnets "$SUBNET1" "$SUBNET2" \
  --node-role "$NODE_ROLE_ARN" \
  --scaling-config minSize=1,maxSize=4,desiredSize=$NODE_COUNT \
  --instance-types "$NODE_TYPE" \
  --ami-type AL2_x86_64

The node group is launched in the same subnets. The script waits until the group is fully active before proceeding.

Final Output

kubectl get nodes

Confirms that the EKS cluster is fully operational and displays the active nodes.