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EKS Cluster Node Groups Setup with Terraform; Automating Kubernetes on AWS

Automated AWS EKS cluster provisioning with Terraform, integrating Helm for seamless app management and Datadog for robust monitoring, ensuring a secure and scalable Kubernetes environment

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) provides a powerful platform for running containerized applications at scale. However, the process of provisioning, configuring, and managing the necessary AWS resources for an EKS cluster can be complex and time-consuming. By leveraging Terraform, a popular infrastructure-as-code tool, Atsky has automated the entire process, delivering a streamlined, secure, and scalable solution for deploying Kubernetes applications on AWS.



Project Overview

In this project, we used Terraform to automate the setup of an EKS cluster on AWS, including the creation of essential resources such as VPCs, subnets, security groups, and IAM roles. We further enhanced the cluster management capabilities by integrating Helm and Helmfile, which provided a robust framework for deploying and managing Kubernetes applications. This project also included the deployment of a sample application, ensuring that the infrastructure was fully operational and ready for production use.



Project Scope: Tackling the Complexity

  1. Provisioning an EKS Cluster on AWS Using Terraform

    • Complexity: Provisioning an EKS cluster involves orchestrating a multitude of AWS resources, including VPCs, subnets, route tables, security groups, IAM roles, and more. Terraform's declarative configuration language allows for the precise and repeatable setup of these resources, ensuring that best practices are followed, and human error is minimized.

    • Business Benefit: Automating the provisioning process not only saves time but also ensures consistency across environments. This reduces the likelihood of configuration errors that could lead to security vulnerabilities or operational inefficiencies.

  2. Setting Up the EKS Cluster Using Helm & Helmfile

    • Complexity: Helm and Helmfile are powerful tools that simplify the management of Kubernetes applications. Helm charts allow for the easy deployment and management of applications, while Helmfile provides a declarative way to manage collections of Helm charts. This setup ensures that the EKS cluster is not only functional but also easy to manage, upgrade, and roll back if necessary.

    • Business Benefit: By integrating Helm and Helmfile, we provide a flexible and scalable way to manage the cluster’s lifecycle, including the deployment of complex applications. This reduces downtime and ensures that updates can be applied with minimal disruption.

  3. Deploying a Sample Application

    • Complexity: Deploying a sample application serves as a validation step, ensuring that the EKS cluster is fully operational. This includes configuring application networking, load balancing, and DNS management, which are critical for production workloads.

    • Business Benefit: Demonstrating a fully operational application provides confidence that the infrastructure is production-ready. This also allows teams to test and validate their applications in a real-world environment before going live.

  4. Monitoring and Observability

    • Complexity: Setting up monitoring is essential for maintaining the health and performance of the EKS cluster. We configured monitoring using Datadog, which provides real-time insights into the cluster's performance, resource utilization, and potential issues. Additionally, we installed Fluent Bit to stream logs from EKS to CloudWatch, ensuring comprehensive observability.

    • Business Benefit: With robust monitoring and logging in place, businesses can proactively identify and resolve issues, ensuring high availability and optimal performance of their Kubernetes applications.



Project Deliverables - Ensuring Robustness & Scalability

  • Terraform Configuration Files: Automated scripts for provisioning the EKS cluster, including VPCs, subnets, security groups, IAM roles, and node groups.

  • Helm and Helmfile Configuration Files: Scripts for deploying and managing applications on the EKS cluster, ensuring easy upgrades and rollbacks.

  • Sample Application Deployment File: A fully configured application to demonstrate the cluster's capabilities.

  • Detailed Documentation: Comprehensive instructions on how to use, manage, and scale the EKS cluster.

  • Managed Node Groups: Ensured that AWS manages the underlying compute power to run Kubernetes jobs, offering auto-scaling and self-healing capabilities.

  • Fluent Bit Configuration: Set up to stream logs from EKS to CloudWatch, providing full visibility into the cluster’s operations.

  • AWS Application Load Balancer Controller: Configured to dynamically add new application endpoints, ensuring efficient traffic management.

  • External DNS Ingress: Configured to automatically create DNS entries for new application endpoints, simplifying the process of exposing services to the internet.

  • Datadog Monitoring: Integrated for comprehensive monitoring of the EKS cluster, ensuring real-time insights and alerting.



Benefits of the Project - Enhancing Business Capabilities

  1. Automated Deployment

    • Benefit: Terraform automation eliminates manual configuration errors and ensures that infrastructure is consistently deployed according to best practices. This leads to faster time-to-market and reduced operational overhead.

  2. Scalability

    • Benefit: The EKS cluster is designed to scale effortlessly, allowing businesses to add or remove nodes as needed. This ensures that the infrastructure can adapt to changing demands, supporting both growth and cost-efficiency.

  3. Cluster Management with Helm & Helmfile

    • Benefit: Helm and Helmfile provide a powerful framework for managing the cluster and its components, allowing for seamless updates, rollbacks, and application management. This reduces the risk of downtime and simplifies the management of complex deployments.

  4. Improved Security

    • Benefit: By automating the creation of security groups, IAM roles, and other security-related resources, Terraform ensures that the cluster is secure by design. This reduces the risk of misconfigurations that could lead to vulnerabilities.

  5. Time-Saving

    • Benefit: Automating the deployment and management processes saves significant time, allowing teams to focus on developing and improving applications rather than managing infrastructure.

  6. Enhanced Observability and Management

    • Benefit: Comprehensive monitoring and logging provide real-time insights into the cluster’s performance and health. This enables proactive management, helping to maintain high availability and performance.



Conclusion

The project to set up an EKS cluster on AWS using Terraform, along with Helm and Helmfile for management, represents a significant step forward in automating and optimizing cloud-native application deployment. By leveraging these tools, Atsky has delivered a solution that is robust, scalable, and secure, providing businesses with a solid foundation for running Kubernetes workloads on AWS. The automation and management capabilities introduced by Terraform and Helm significantly reduce operational overhead and improve the security posture of the EKS cluster, ensuring that businesses can focus on innovation and growth.

Atsky's expertise in cloud automation and Kubernetes management ensures that your EKS cluster is not only efficiently deployed but also maintained and scaled according to your business needs. Whether you are deploying your first Kubernetes cluster or optimizing an existing environment, Atsky's end-to-end services provide the support and expertise needed to succeed

Power in Numbers

Deployment Time

100x frequency increment

Change Failure Rate

< 10%

Recovery Time

< 1 hours

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Lead Time

< 1 day

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Release Cadence

2-4 K8s upgrade per year

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