This is the multi-page printable view of this section. Click here to print.

Return to the regular view of this page.

Create production cluster

1: Create Bare Metal production cluster
2: Create CloudStack production cluster
3: Create Nutanix production cluster
4: Create Snow production cluster
5: Create vSphere production cluster

EKS Anywhere allows you to provision and manage Amazon EKS on your own infrastructure. To get started with different production-quality EKS Anywhere providers, choose from the providers below:

1 - Create Bare Metal production cluster

Create a production-quality cluster on Bare Metal

EKS Anywhere supports a Bare Metal provider for production grade EKS Anywhere deployments. EKS Anywhere allows you to provision and manage Kubernetes clusters based on Amazon EKS software on your own infrastructure.

This document walks you through setting up EKS Anywhere on Bare Metal as a standalone, self-managed cluster or combined set of management/workload clusters. See Cluster topologies for details.

Prerequisite checklist

EKS Anywhere needs:

To be run on an Admin machine that has certain machine requirements .
To meet certain Bare Metal requirements for hardware and network configuration.
To have some Bare Metal preparation be in place before creating an EKS Anywhere cluster.

Also, see the Ports and protocols page for information on ports that need to be accessible from control plane, worker, and Admin machines.

Steps

The following steps are divided into two sections:

Create an initial cluster (used as a management or self-managed cluster)
Create zero or more workload clusters from the management cluster

Create an initial cluster

Follow these steps to create an EKS Anywhere cluster that can be used either as a management cluster or as a self-managed cluster (for running workloads itself).

Set an environment variables for your cluster name
```
export CLUSTER_NAME=mgmt
```

Generate a cluster config file for your Bare Metal provider (using tinkerbell as the provider type).

eksctl anywhere generate clusterconfig $CLUSTER_NAME --provider tinkerbell > eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml

Modify the cluster config (eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml) by referring to the Bare Metal configuration reference documentation.
Set License Environment Variable

If you are creating a licensed cluster, set and export the license variable (see License cluster if you are licensing an existing cluster):
```
export EKSA_LICENSE='my-license-here'
```
After you have created your eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml and set your credential environment variables, you will be ready to create the cluster.
Configure Curated Packages

The Amazon EKS Anywhere Curated Packages are only available to customers with the Amazon EKS Anywhere Enterprise Subscription. To request a free trial, talk to your Amazon representative or connect with one here . Cluster creation will succeed if authentication is not set up, but some warnings may be generated. Detailed package configurations can be found here .

If you are going to use packages, set up authentication. These credentials should have limited capabilities :
```
export EKSA_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="your*access*id"
export EKSA_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="your*secret*key"
export EKSA_AWS_REGION="us-west-2" 
```

Create the cluster, using the hardware.csv file you made in Bare Metal preparation .

For a regular cluster create (with internet access), type the following:

eksctl anywhere create cluster \
   --hardware-csv hardware.csv \
   # --install-packages packages.yaml \ # uncomment to install curated packages at cluster creation
   -f eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml

For an airgapped cluster create, follow Preparation for airgapped deployments instructions, then type the following:

eksctl anywhere create cluster
   --hardware-csv hardware.csv \
   # --install-packages packages.yaml \ # uncomment to install curated packages at cluster creation
   -f $CLUSTER_NAME.yaml \
   --bundles-override ./eks-anywhere-downloads/bundle-release.yaml

Once the cluster is created you can use it with the generated KUBECONFIG file in your local directory:
```
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
```

Check the cluster nodes:

To check that the cluster completed, list the machines to see the control plane and worker nodes:

kubectl get machines -A

Example command output:

NAMESPACE     NAME                        CLUSTER   NODENAME        PROVIDERID                              PHASE     AGE   VERSION
eksa-system   mgmt-47zj8                  mgmt      eksa-node01     tinkerbell://eksa-system/eksa-node01    Running   1h    v1.23.7-eks-1-23-4
eksa-system   mgmt-md-0-7f79df46f-wlp7w   mgmt      eksa-node02     tinkerbell://eksa-system/eksa-node02    Running   1h    v1.23.7-eks-1-23-4
...

Check the cluster:

You can now use the cluster as you would any Kubernetes cluster. To try it out, run the test application with:

export CLUSTER_NAME=mgmt
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
kubectl apply -f "https://anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/manifests/hello-eks-a.yaml"

Verify the test application in Deploy test workload .

Create separate workload clusters

Follow these steps if you want to use your initial cluster to create and manage separate workload clusters.

Generate a workload cluster config:
```
CLUSTER_NAME=w01
eksctl anywhere generate clusterconfig $CLUSTER_NAME \
   --provider tinkerbell > eksa-w01-cluster.yaml
```
Refer to the initial config described earlier for the required and optional settings. Ensure workload cluster object names (Cluster, TinkerbellDatacenterConfig, TinkerbellMachineConfig, etc.) are distinct from management cluster object names. Keep the tinkerbellIP of workload cluster the same as tinkerbellIP of the management cluster.
Be sure to set the managementCluster field to identify the name of the management cluster.

For example, the management cluster, mgmt is defined for our workload cluster w01 as follows:
```
apiVersion: anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/v1alpha1
kind: Cluster
metadata:
  name: w01
spec:
  managementCluster:
    name: mgmt
```
Set License Environment Variable

Add a license to any cluster for which you want to receive paid support. If you are creating a licensed cluster, set and export the license variable (see License cluster if you are licensing an existing cluster):
```
export EKSA_LICENSE='my-license-here'
```

Create a workload cluster

To create a new workload cluster from your management cluster run this command, identifying:

The workload cluster YAML file
The initial cluster’s credentials (this causes the workload cluster to be managed from the management cluster)

With hardware CSV

eksctl anywhere create cluster \
    -f eksa-w01-cluster.yaml  \
    # --install-packages packages.yaml \ # uncomment to install curated packages at cluster creation
    --hardware-csv <hardware.csv>
    # --bundles-override ./eks-anywhere-downloads/bundle-release.yaml \ # uncomment for airgapped install
    --kubeconfig mgmt/mgmt-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig

Without hardware CSV

eksctl anywhere create cluster \
    -f eksa-w01-cluster.yaml  \
    # --install-packages packages.yaml \ # uncomment to install curated packages at cluster creation
    # --bundles-override ./eks-anywhere-downloads/bundle-release.yaml \ # uncomment for airgapped install
    --kubeconfig mgmt/mgmt-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig

As noted earlier, adding the --kubeconfig option tells eksctl to use the management cluster identified by that kubeconfig file to create a different workload cluster.

Check the workload cluster:

You can now use the workload cluster as you would any Kubernetes cluster. Change your credentials to point to the new workload cluster (for example, mgmt-w01), then run the test application with:
```
export CLUSTER_NAME=mgmt-w01
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
kubectl apply -f "https://anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/manifests/hello-eks-a.yaml"
```
Verify the test application in the deploy test application section.
Add more workload clusters:

To add more workload clusters, go through the same steps for creating the initial workload, copying the config file to a new name (such as eksa-w02-cluster.yaml), modifying resource names, and running the create cluster command again.

Next steps:

See the Cluster management section for more information on common operational tasks like deleting the cluster.
See the Package management section for more information on post-creation curated packages installation.

2 - Create CloudStack production cluster

Create a production-quality cluster on CloudStack

EKS Anywhere supports a CloudStack provider for production grade EKS Anywhere deployments. This document walks you through setting up EKS Anywhere on CloudStack in a way that:

Deploys an initial cluster on your CloudStack environment. That cluster can be used as a standalone cluster (to run workloads) or a management cluster (to create and manage other clusters)
Deploys zero or more workload clusters from the management cluster

If your initial cluster is a management cluster, it is intended to stay in place so you can use it later to modify, upgrade, and delete workload clusters. Using a management cluster makes it faster to provision and delete workload clusters. Also it lets you keep CloudStack credentials for a set of clusters in one place: on the management cluster. The alternative is to simply use your initial cluster to run workloads. See Cluster topologies for details.

Important

Creating an EKS Anywhere management cluster is the recommended model. Separating management features into a separate, persistent management cluster provides a cleaner model for managing the lifecycle of workload clusters (to create, upgrade, and delete clusters), while workload clusters run user applications. This approach also reduces provider permissions for workload clusters.

Prerequisite Checklist

EKS Anywhere needs to:

Be run on an Admin machine that has certain machine requirements .
Have certain resources from your CloudStack deployment available.
Have some preparation done before creating an EKS Anywhere cluster.

Also, see the Ports and protocols page for information on ports that need to be accessible from control plane, worker, and Admin machines.

Steps

The following steps are divided into two sections:

Create an initial cluster (used as a management or standalone cluster)
Create zero or more workload clusters from the management cluster

Create an initial cluster

Follow these steps to create an EKS Anywhere cluster that can be used either as a management cluster or as a standalone cluster (for running workloads itself).

Generate an initial cluster config (named mgmt for this example):

export CLUSTER_NAME=mgmt
eksctl anywhere generate clusterconfig $CLUSTER_NAME \
   --provider cloudstack > eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml

Create credential file

Create a credential file (for example, cloud-config) and add the credentials needed to access your CloudStack environment. The file should include:
- api-key: Obtained from CloudStack
- secret-key: Obtained from CloudStack
- api-url: The URL to your CloudStack API endpoint
For example:
```
[Global]
api-key     =  -Dk5uB0DE3aWng
secret-key  =  -0DQLunsaJKxCEEHn44XxP80tv6v_RB0DiDtdgwJ
api-url     =  http://172.16.0.1:8080/client/api
```
You can have multiple credential entries. To match this example, you would enter global as the credentialsRef in the cluster config file for your CloudStack availability zone. You can configure multiple credentials for multiple availability zones.
Modify the initial cluster config (eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml) as follows:
- Refer to Cloudstack configuration for information on configuring this cluster config for a CloudStack provider.
- Add Optional configuration settings as needed.
- Create at least two control plane nodes, three worker nodes, and three etcd nodes for a production cluster, to provide high availability and rolling upgrades.
Set Environment Variables

Convert the credential file into base64 and set the following environment variable to that value:
```
export EKSA_CLOUDSTACK_B64ENCODED_SECRET=$(base64 -i cloud-config)
```
Set License Environment Variable

Add a license to any cluster for which you want to receive paid support. If you are creating a licensed cluster, set and export the license variable (see License cluster if you are licensing an existing cluster):
```
export EKSA_LICENSE='my-license-here'
```
Configure Curated Packages

The Amazon EKS Anywhere Curated Packages are only available to customers with the Amazon EKS Anywhere Enterprise Subscription. To request a free trial, talk to your Amazon representative or connect with one here . Cluster creation will succeed if authentication is not set up, but some warnings may be generated. Detailed package configurations can be found here .

If you are going to use packages, set up authentication. These credentials should have limited capabilities :
```
export EKSA_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="your*access*id"
export EKSA_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="your*secret*key"
export EKSA_AWS_REGION="us-west-2"  
```
Disable Kubevip load balancer

Skip this step if you want to use the Kubevip load balancer with your cluster. If you want to use a different load balancer, you can disable Kubevip as follows:
```
export CLOUDSTACK_KUBE_VIP_DISABLED=true
```

Create cluster

eksctl anywhere create cluster \
   # --install-packages packages.yaml \ # uncomment to install curated packages at cluster creation
   -f eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml

Once the cluster is created you can use it with the generated KUBECONFIG file in your local directory:
```
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
```

Check the cluster nodes:

To check that the cluster completed, list the machines to see the control plane, etcd, and worker nodes:

kubectl get machines -A

Example command output

NAMESPACE   NAME                PROVIDERID        PHASE    VERSION
eksa-system mgmt-b2xyz          cloudstack:/xxxxx    Running  v1.23.1-eks-1-21-5
eksa-system mgmt-etcd-r9b42     cloudstack:/xxxxx    Running  
eksa-system mgmt-md-8-6xr-rnr   cloudstack:/xxxxx    Running  v1.23.1-eks-1-21-5
...

The etcd machine doesn’t show the Kubernetes version because it doesn’t run the kubelet service.

Check the initial cluster’s CRD:

To ensure you are looking at the initial cluster, list the CRD to see that the name of its management cluster is itself:
```
kubectl get clusters mgmt -o yaml
```
Example command output
```
...
kubernetesVersion: "1.23"
managementCluster:
  name: mgmt
workerNodeGroupConfigurations:
...
```
Note
The initial cluster is now ready to deploy workload clusters. However, if you just want to use it to run workloads, you can deploy pod workloads directly on the initial cluster without deploying a separate workload cluster and skip the section on running separate workload clusters. To make sure the cluster is ready to run workloads, run the test application in the Deploy test workload section.

Create separate workload clusters

Follow these steps if you want to use your initial cluster to create and manage separate workload clusters.

Generate a workload cluster config:

CLUSTER_NAME=w01
eksctl anywhere generate clusterconfig $CLUSTER_NAME \
   --provider cloudstack > eksa-w01-cluster.yaml

Modify the workload cluster config (eksa-w01-cluster.yaml) as follows. Refer to the initial config described earlier for the required and optional settings. In particular:
- Ensure workload cluster object names (Cluster, CloudDatacenterConfig, CloudStackMachineConfig, etc.) are distinct from management cluster object names.
Be sure to set the managementCluster field to identify the name of the management cluster.

For example, the management cluster, mgmt is defined for our workload cluster w01 as follows:
```
apiVersion: anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/v1alpha1
kind: Cluster
metadata:
  name: w01
spec:
  managementCluster:
    name: mgmt
```
Set License Environment Variable

Add a license to any cluster for which you want to receive paid support. If you are creating a licensed cluster, set and export the license variable (see License cluster if you are licensing an existing cluster):
```
export EKSA_LICENSE='my-license-here'
```
Create a workload cluster

To create a new workload cluster from your management cluster run this command, identifying:
- The workload cluster YAML file
- The initial cluster’s credentials (this causes the workload cluster to be managed from the management cluster)
```
eksctl anywhere create cluster \
    -f eksa-w01-cluster.yaml  \
    # --install-packages packages.yaml \ # uncomment to install curated packages at cluster creation
    --kubeconfig mgmt/mgmt-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
```
As noted earlier, adding the --kubeconfig option tells eksctl to use the management cluster identified by that kubeconfig file to create a different workload cluster.
Check the workload cluster:

You can now use the workload cluster as you would any Kubernetes cluster. Change your credentials to point to the new workload cluster (for example, mgmt-w01), then run the test application with:
```
export CLUSTER_NAME=mgmt-w01
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
kubectl apply -f "https://anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/manifests/hello-eks-a.yaml"
```
Verify the test application in the deploy test application section.
Add more workload clusters:

To add more workload clusters, go through the same steps for creating the initial workload, copying the config file to a new name (such as eksa-w02-cluster.yaml), modifying resource names, and running the create cluster command again.

Next steps:

See the Cluster management section for more information on common operational tasks like scaling and deleting the cluster.
See the Package management section for more information on post-creation curated packages installation.

3 - Create Nutanix production cluster

Create a production-quality cluster on Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure with AHV

EKS Anywhere supports a Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provider for production grade EKS Anywhere deployments. This document walks you through setting up EKS Anywhere on Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure with AHV in a way that:

Deploys an initial cluster in your Nutanix environment. That cluster can be used as a self-managed cluster (to run workloads) or a management cluster (to create and manage other clusters)
Deploys zero or more workload clusters from the management cluster

If your initial cluster is a management cluster, it is intended to stay in place so you can use it later to modify, upgrade, and delete workload clusters. Using a management cluster makes it faster to provision and delete workload clusters. It also lets you keep NCI credentials for a set of clusters in one place: on the management cluster. The alternative is to simply use your initial cluster to run workloads. See Cluster topologies for details.

Important

Prerequisite Checklist

EKS Anywhere needs to:

Be run on an Admin machine that has certain machine requirements .
Have certain resources from your Nutanix deployment available.
Have some preparation done before creating an EKS Anywhere cluster.

Also, see the Ports and protocols page for information on ports that need to be accessible from control plane, worker, and Admin machines.

Steps

The following steps are divided into two sections:

Create an initial cluster (used as a management or self-managed cluster)
Create zero or more workload clusters from the management cluster

Create an initial cluster

Follow these steps to create an EKS Anywhere cluster that can be used either as a management cluster or as a self-managed cluster (for running workloads itself).

Generate an initial cluster config (named mgmt for this example):

CLUSTER_NAME=mgmt
eksctl anywhere generate clusterconfig $CLUSTER_NAME \
   --provider nutanix > eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml

Modify the initial cluster config (eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml) as follows:
- Refer to Nutanix configuration for information on configuring this cluster config for a Nutanix provider.
- Add Optional configuration settings as needed.
- Create at least three control plane nodes, and three worker nodes for a production cluster, to provide high availability and rolling upgrades.
Set Credential Environment Variables

Before you create the initial cluster, you will need to set and export these environment variables for your Nutanix Prism Central user name and password. Make sure you use single quotes around the values so that your shell does not interpret the values:
```
export EKSA_NUTANIX_USERNAME='billy'
export EKSA_NUTANIX_PASSWORD='t0p$ecret'
```
Note
If you have a username in the form of domain_name/user_name, you must specify it as user_name@domain_name to avoid errors in cluster creation. For example, nutanix.local/admin should be specified as admin@nutanix.local.
Set License Environment Variable

Add a license to any cluster for which you want to receive paid support. If you are creating a licensed cluster, set and export the license variable (see License cluster if you are licensing an existing cluster):
```
export EKSA_LICENSE='my-license-here'
```
After you have created your eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml and set your credential environment variables, you will be ready to create the cluster.
Configure Curated Packages

The Amazon EKS Anywhere Curated Packages are only available to customers with the Amazon EKS Anywhere Enterprise Subscription. To request a free trial, talk to your Amazon representative or connect with one here . Cluster creation will succeed if authentication is not set up, but some warnings may be generated. Detailed package configurations can be found here .

If you are going to use packages, set up authentication. These credentials should have limited capabilities :
```
export EKSA_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="your*access*id"
export EKSA_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="your*secret*key"
export EKSA_AWS_REGION="us-west-2"  
```

Create cluster

eksctl anywhere create cluster \
   # --install-packages packages.yaml \ # uncomment to install curated packages at cluster creation
   -f eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml

Once the cluster is created, you can access it with the generated KUBECONFIG file in your local directory:
```
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
```

Check the cluster nodes:

To check that the cluster is ready, list the machines to see the control plane, and worker nodes:

kubectl get machines -n eksa-system

Example command output

   NAME              CLUSTER  NODENAME                                 PROVIDERID       PHASE     AGE   VERSION
   mgmt-4gtt2        mgmt     mgmt-control-plane-1670343878900-2m4ln   nutanix://xxxx   Running   11m   v1.24.7-eks-1-24-4
   mgmt-d42xn        mgmt     mgmt-control-plane-1670343878900-jbfxt   nutanix://xxxx   Running   11m   v1.24.7-eks-1-24-4
   mgmt-md-0-9868m   mgmt     mgmt-md-0-1670343878901-lkmxw            nutanix://xxxx   Running   11m   v1.24.7-eks-1-24-4
   mgmt-md-0-njpk2   mgmt     mgmt-md-0-1670343878901-9clbz            nutanix://xxxx   Running   11m   v1.24.7-eks-1-24-4
   mgmt-md-0-p4gp2   mgmt     mgmt-md-0-1670343878901-mbktx            nutanix://xxxx   Running   11m   v1.24.7-eks-1-24-4
   mgmt-zkwrr        mgmt     mgmt-control-plane-1670343878900-jrdkk   nutanix://xxxx   Running   11m   v1.24.7-eks-1-24-4

Check the initial cluster’s CRD:

To ensure you are looking at the initial cluster, list the cluster CRD to see that the name of its management cluster is itself:
```
kubectl get clusters mgmt -o yaml
```
Example command output
```
...
kubernetesVersion: "1.25"
managementCluster:
  name: mgmt
workerNodeGroupConfigurations:
...
```
Note
The initial cluster is now ready to deploy workload clusters. However, if you just want to use it to run workloads, you can deploy pod workloads directly on the initial cluster without deploying a separate workload cluster and skip the section on running separate workload clusters. To make sure the cluster is ready to run workloads, run the test application in the Deploy test workload section.

Create separate workload clusters

Follow these steps if you want to use your initial cluster to create and manage separate workload clusters.

Generate a workload cluster config:
```
CLUSTER_NAME=w01
eksctl anywhere generate clusterconfig $CLUSTER_NAME \
   --provider nutanix > eksa-w01-cluster.yaml
```
Refer to the initial config described earlier for the required and optional settings. Ensure workload cluster object names (Cluster, NutanixDatacenterConfig, NutanixMachineConfig, etc.) are distinct from management cluster object names.
Be sure to set the managementCluster field to identify the name of the management cluster.

For example, the management cluster, mgmt is defined for our workload cluster w01 as follows:
```
apiVersion: anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/v1alpha1
kind: Cluster
metadata:
  name: w01
spec:
  managementCluster:
    name: mgmt
```
Set License Environment Variable

Add a license to any cluster for which you want to receive paid support. If you are creating a licensed cluster, set and export the license variable (see License cluster if you are licensing an existing cluster):
```
export EKSA_LICENSE='my-license-here'
```
Create a workload cluster

To create a new workload cluster from your management cluster run this command, identifying:
- The workload cluster YAML file
- The initial cluster’s kubeconfig (this causes the workload cluster to be managed from the management cluster)
```
eksctl anywhere create cluster \
    -f eksa-w01-cluster.yaml  \
    # --install-packages packages.yaml \ # uncomment to install curated packages at cluster creation
    --kubeconfig mgmt/mgmt-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
```
As noted earlier, adding the --kubeconfig option tells eksctl to use the management cluster identified by that kubeconfig file to create a different workload cluster.
Check the workload cluster:

You can now use the workload cluster as you would any Kubernetes cluster. Change your kubeconfig to point to the new workload cluster (for example, w01), then run the test application with:
```
export CLUSTER_NAME=w01
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
kubectl apply -f "https://anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/manifests/hello-eks-a.yaml"
```
Verify the test application in the deploy test application section.
Add more workload clusters:

To add more workload clusters, go through the same steps for creating the initial workload, copying the config file to a new name (such as eksa-w02-cluster.yaml), modifying resource names, and running the create cluster command again.

Next steps:

See the Cluster management section for more information on common operational tasks like scaling and deleting the cluster.
See the Package management section for more information on post-creation curated packages installation.

4 - Create Snow production cluster

Create a production-quality cluster on AWS Snow

EKS Anywhere supports an AWS Snow provider for production grade EKS Anywhere deployments.

This document walks you through setting up EKS Anywhere on Snow as a standalone, self-managed cluster or combined set of management/workload clusters. See Cluster topologies for details.

Prerequisite checklist

EKS Anywhere on Snow needs:

Certain pre-steps to complete before interacting with a Snowball device. See Actions to complete before ordering a Snowball Edge device for Amazon EKS Anywhere .
EKS Anywhere enabled Snowball devices. See Ordering a Snowball Edge device for use with Amazon EKS Anywhere for ordering experience through the AWS Snow Family console.
To be run on an Admin instance in a Snowball Edge device. See Configuring and starting Amazon EKS Anywhere on Snowball Edge devices for setting up the devices, launching the Admin instance, fetching and copying the device credentials to the Admin instance for eksctl CLI to consume.

Also, see the Ports and protocols page for information on ports that need to be accessible from control plane, worker, and Admin machines.

Steps

The following steps are divided into two sections:

Create an initial cluster (used as a management or standalone cluster)
Create zero or more workload clusters from the management cluster

Create an initial cluster

Follow these steps to create an EKS Anywhere cluster that can be used either as a management cluster or as a standalone cluster (for running workloads itself).

Set an environment variables for your cluster name
```
export CLUSTER_NAME=mgmt
```

Generate a cluster config file for your Snow provider

eksctl anywhere generate clusterconfig $CLUSTER_NAME --provider snow > eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml

Optionally import images to private registry

This optional step imports EKS Anywhere artifacts and release bundle to a local registry. This is required for air-gapped installation.
- Configuring Amazon EKS Anywhere for disconnected operation shows AWS examples of selecting and building a private registry in a Snowball Edge device.
- For air-gapped scenario, run the import images with --input and --bundles arguments pointing to the artifacts and bundle release files that pre-exist in the Admin instance.
- Refer to the Registry Mirror configuration for more information about using private registry.
```
eksctl anywhere import images \
   --input /usr/lib/eks-a/artifacts/artifacts.tar.gz \
   --bundles /usr/lib/eks-a/manifests/bundle-release.yaml \
   --registry $PRIVATE_REGISTRY_ENDPOINT \
   --insecure=true
```
Modify the cluster config (eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml) as follows:
- Refer to the Snow configuration for information on configuring this cluster config for a Snow provider.
- Add Optional configuration settings as needed.
Set License Environment Variable

If you are creating a licensed cluster, set and export the license variable (see License cluster if you are licensing an existing cluster):
```
export EKSA_LICENSE='my-license-here'
```
Configure Curated Packages

The Amazon EKS Anywhere Curated Packages are only available to customers with the Amazon EKS Anywhere Enterprise Subscription. To request a free trial, talk to your Amazon representative or connect with one here . Cluster creation will succeed if authentication is not set up, but some warnings may be generated. Detailed package configurations can be found here .

If you are going to use packages, set up authentication. These credentials should have limited capabilities :
```
export EKSA_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="your*access*id"
export EKSA_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="your*secret*key"
export EKSA_AWS_REGION="us-west-2" 
```
Curated packages are not yet supported on air-gapped installation.
Set Credential Environment Variables

Before you create the initial cluster, you will need to use the credentials and ca-bundles files that are in the Admin instance, and export these environment variables for your AWS Snowball device credentials. Make sure you use single quotes around the values so that your shell does not interpret the values:
```
export EKSA_AWS_CREDENTIALS_FILE='/PATH/TO/CREDENTIALS/FILE'
export EKSA_AWS_CA_BUNDLES_FILE='/PATH/TO/CABUNDLES/FILE'
```
After you have created your eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml and set your credential environment variables, you will be ready to create the cluster.

Create cluster

a. For none air-gapped environment

eksctl anywhere create cluster \
   -f eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml

b. For air-gapped environment

eksctl anywhere create cluster \
   -f eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml \
   --bundles-override /usr/lib/eks-a/manifests/bundle-release.yaml

Once the cluster is created you can use it with the generated KUBECONFIG file in your local directory:
```
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
```

Check the cluster nodes:

To check that the cluster completed, list the machines to see the control plane and worker nodes:

kubectl get machines -A

Example command output:

NAMESPACE    NAME                        CLUSTER  NODENAME                    PROVIDERID                                       PHASE    AGE    VERSION
eksa-system  mgmt-etcd-dsxb5             mgmt                                 aws-snow:///192.168.1.231/s.i-8b0b0631da3b8d9e4  Running  4m59s  
eksa-system  mgmt-md-0-7b7c69cf94-99sll  mgmt     mgmt-md-0-1-58nng           aws-snow:///192.168.1.231/s.i-8ebf6b58a58e47531  Running  4m58s  v1.24.9-eks-1-24-7
eksa-system  mgmt-srrt8                  mgmt     mgmt-control-plane-1-xs4t9  aws-snow:///192.168.1.231/s.i-8414c7fcabcf3d7c1  Running  4m58s  v1.24.9-eks-1-24-7
...

Check the cluster:

You can now use the cluster as you would any Kubernetes cluster. To try it out, run the test application with:

export CLUSTER_NAME=mgmt
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
kubectl apply -f "https://anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/manifests/hello-eks-a.yaml"

Verify the test application in Deploy test workload .

Create separate workload clusters

Follow these steps if you want to use your initial cluster to create and manage separate workload clusters.

Generate a workload cluster config:
```
CLUSTER_NAME=w01
eksctl anywhere generate clusterconfig $CLUSTER_NAME \
   --provider snow > eksa-w01-cluster.yaml
```
Refer to the initial config described earlier for the required and optional settings.

NOTE: Ensure workload cluster object names (Cluster, SnowDatacenterConfig, SnowMachineConfig, etc.) are distinct from management cluster object names.
Be sure to set the managementCluster field to identify the name of the management cluster.

For example, the management cluster, mgmt is defined for our workload cluster w01 as follows:
```
apiVersion: anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/v1alpha1
kind: Cluster
metadata:
  name: w01
spec:
  managementCluster:
    name: mgmt
```
Set License Environment Variable

Add a license to any cluster for which you want to receive paid support. If you are creating a licensed cluster, set and export the license variable (see License cluster if you are licensing an existing cluster):
```
export EKSA_LICENSE='my-license-here'
```
Create a workload cluster in one of the following ways:
- GitOps: See Manage separate workload clusters with GitOps
- Terraform: See Manage separate workload clusters with Terraform
  
  NOTE: snowDatacenterConfig.spec.identityRef and a Snow bootstrap credentials secret need to be specified when provisioning a cluster through GitOps or Terraform, as EKS Anywhere Cluster Controller will not create a Snow bootstrap credentials secret like eksctl CLI does when field is empty.
  
  snowMachineConfig.spec.sshKeyName must be specified to SSH into your nodes when provisioning a cluster through GitOps or Terraform, as the EKS Anywhere Cluster Controller will not generate the keys like eksctl CLI does when the field is empty.
- eksctl CLI: To create a workload cluster with eksctl, run:
```
eksctl anywhere create cluster \
    -f eksa-w01-cluster.yaml  \
    --kubeconfig mgmt/mgmt-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
```
  As noted earlier, adding the --kubeconfig option tells eksctl to use the management cluster identified by that kubeconfig file to create a different workload cluster.
- kubectl CLI: The cluster lifecycle feature lets you use kubectl, or other tools that that can talk to the Kubernetes API, to create a workload cluster. To use kubectl, run:
```
kubectl apply -f eksa-w01-cluster.yaml
```
Check the workload cluster:

You can now use the workload cluster as you would any Kubernetes cluster.
- If your workload cluster was created with eksctl, change your credentials to point to the new workload cluster (for example, w01), then run the test application with:
```
export CLUSTER_NAME=w01
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
kubectl apply -f "https://anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/manifests/hello-eks-a.yaml"
```
- If your workload cluster was created with GitOps or Terraform, the kubeconfig for your new cluster is stored as a secret on the management cluster. You can get credentials and run the test application as follows:
```
kubectl get secret -n eksa-system w01-kubeconfig -o jsonpath=‘{.data.value}' | base64 —decode > w01.kubeconfig
export KUBECONFIG=w01.kubeconfig
kubectl apply -f "https://anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/manifests/hello-eks-a.yaml"
```
Verify the test application in the deploy test application section.
Add more workload clusters:

To add more workload clusters, go through the same steps for creating the initial workload, copying the config file to a new name (such as eksa-w02-cluster.yaml), modifying resource names, and running the create cluster command again.

Next steps:

See the Cluster management section for more information on common operational tasks like deleting the cluster.
See the Package management section for more information on post-creation curated packages installation.

5 - Create vSphere production cluster

Create a production-quality cluster on VMware vSphere

EKS Anywhere supports a VMware vSphere provider for production grade EKS Anywhere deployments. This document walks you through setting up EKS Anywhere on vSphere in a way that:

Deploys an initial cluster on your vSphere environment. That cluster can be used as a self-managed cluster (to run workloads) or a management cluster (to create and manage other clusters)
Deploys zero or more workload clusters from the management cluster

If your initial cluster is a management cluster, it is intended to stay in place so you can use it later to modify, upgrade, and delete workload clusters. Using a management cluster makes it faster to provision and delete workload clusters. Also it lets you keep vSphere credentials for a set of clusters in one place: on the management cluster. The alternative is to simply use your initial cluster to run workloads. See Cluster topologies for details.

Important

Prerequisite Checklist

EKS Anywhere needs to:

Be run on an Admin machine that has certain machine requirements .
Have certain resources from your VMware vSphere deployment available.
Have some preparation done before creating an EKS Anywhere cluster.

Also, see the Ports and protocols page for information on ports that need to be accessible from control plane, worker, and Admin machines.

Steps

The following steps are divided into two sections:

Create an initial cluster (used as a management or self-managed cluster)
Create zero or more workload clusters from the management cluster

Create an initial cluster

Follow these steps to create an EKS Anywhere cluster that can be used either as a management cluster or as a self-managed cluster (for running workloads itself).

Generate an initial cluster config (named mgmt for this example):

CLUSTER_NAME=mgmt
eksctl anywhere generate clusterconfig $CLUSTER_NAME \
   --provider vsphere > eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml

Modify the initial cluster config (eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml) as follows:
- Refer to vsphere configuration for information on configuring this cluster config for a vSphere provider.
- Add Optional configuration settings as needed. See Github provider to see how to identify your Git information.
- Create at least two control plane nodes, three worker nodes, and three etcd nodes for a production cluster, to provide high availability and rolling upgrades.
Set Credential Environment Variables

Before you create the initial cluster, you will need to set and export these environment variables for your vSphere user name and password. Make sure you use single quotes around the values so that your shell does not interpret the values:
```
export EKSA_VSPHERE_USERNAME='billy'
export EKSA_VSPHERE_PASSWORD='t0p$ecret'
```
Note
If you have a username in the form of domain_name/user_name, you must specify it as user_name@domain_name to avoid errors in cluster creation. For example, vsphere.local/admin should be specified as admin@vsphere.local.
Set License Environment Variable

Add a license to any cluster for which you want to receive paid support. If you are creating a licensed cluster, set and export the license variable (see License cluster if you are licensing an existing cluster):
```
export EKSA_LICENSE='my-license-here'
```
After you have created your eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml and set your credential environment variables, you will be ready to create the cluster.
Configure Curated Packages

The Amazon EKS Anywhere Curated Packages are only available to customers with the Amazon EKS Anywhere Enterprise Subscription. To request a free trial, talk to your Amazon representative or connect with one here . Cluster creation will succeed if authentication is not set up, but some warnings may be genered. Detailed package configurations can be found here .

If you are going to use packages, set up authentication. These credentials should have limited capabilities :
```
export EKSA_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="your*access*id"
export EKSA_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="your*secret*key"
export EKSA_AWS_REGION="us-west-2"  
```

Create cluster

eksctl anywhere create cluster \
   # --install-packages packages.yaml \ # uncomment to install curated packages at cluster creation
   -f eksa-mgmt-cluster.yaml

Once the cluster is created you can use it with the generated KUBECONFIG file in your local directory:
```
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
```

Check the cluster nodes:

To check that the cluster completed, list the machines to see the control plane, etcd, and worker nodes:

kubectl get machines -A

Example command output

NAMESPACE   NAME                PROVIDERID        PHASE    VERSION
eksa-system mgmt-b2xyz          vsphere:/xxxxx    Running  v1.24.2-eks-1-24-5
eksa-system mgmt-etcd-r9b42     vsphere:/xxxxx    Running  
eksa-system mgmt-md-8-6xr-rnr   vsphere:/xxxxx    Running  v1.24.2-eks-1-24-5
...

The etcd machine doesn’t show the Kubernetes version because it doesn’t run the kubelet service.

Check the initial cluster’s CRD:

To ensure you are looking at the initial cluster, list the CRD to see that the name of its management cluster is itself:
```
kubectl get clusters mgmt -o yaml
```
Example command output
```
...
kubernetesVersion: "1.25"
managementCluster:
  name: mgmt
workerNodeGroupConfigurations:
...
```
Note
The initial cluster is now ready to deploy workload clusters. However, if you just want to use it to run workloads, you can deploy pod workloads directly on the initial cluster without deploying a separate workload cluster and skip the section on running separate workload clusters. To make sure the cluster is ready to run workloads, run the test application in the Deploy test workload section.

Create separate workload clusters

Follow these steps if you want to use your initial cluster to create and manage separate workload clusters.

Generate a workload cluster config:
```
CLUSTER_NAME=w01
eksctl anywhere generate clusterconfig $CLUSTER_NAME \
   --provider vsphere > eksa-w01-cluster.yaml
```
Refer to the initial config described earlier for the required and optional settings.

NOTE: Ensure workload cluster object names (Cluster, vSphereDatacenterConfig, vSphereMachineConfig, etc.) are distinct from management cluster object names.
Be sure to set the managementCluster field to identify the name of the management cluster.

For example, the management cluster, mgmt is defined for our workload cluster w01 as follows:
```
apiVersion: anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/v1alpha1
kind: Cluster
metadata:
  name: w01
spec:
  managementCluster:
    name: mgmt
```
Set License Environment Variable

Add a license to any cluster for which you want to receive paid support. If you are creating a licensed cluster, set and export the license variable (see License cluster if you are licensing an existing cluster):
```
export EKSA_LICENSE='my-license-here'
```
Create a workload cluster in one of the following ways:
- GitOps: See Manage separate workload clusters with GitOps
- Terraform: See Manage separate workload clusters with Terraform
  
  NOTE: spec.users[0].sshAuthorizedKeys must be specified to SSH into your nodes when provisioning a cluster through GitOps or Terraform, as the EKS Anywhere Cluster Controller will not generate the keys like eksctl CLI does when the field is empty.
- eksctl CLI: To create a workload cluster with eksctl, run:
```
eksctl anywhere create cluster \
    -f eksa-w01-cluster.yaml  \
    # --install-packages packages.yaml \ # uncomment to install curated packages at cluster creation
    --kubeconfig mgmt/mgmt-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
```
  As noted earlier, adding the --kubeconfig option tells eksctl to use the management cluster identified by that kubeconfig file to create a different workload cluster.
- kubectl CLI: The cluster lifecycle feature lets you use kubectl, or other tools that that can talk to the Kubernetes API, to create a workload cluster. To use kubectl, run:
```
kubectl apply -f eksa-w01-cluster.yaml 
```
To check the workload cluster, get the workload cluster credentials and run a test workload:
- If your workload cluster was created with eksctl, change your credentials to point to the new workload cluster (for example, w01), then run the test application with:
```
export CLUSTER_NAME=w01
export KUBECONFIG=${PWD}/${CLUSTER_NAME}/${CLUSTER_NAME}-eks-a-cluster.kubeconfig
kubectl apply -f "https://anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/manifests/hello-eks-a.yaml"
```
- If your workload cluster was created with GitOps or Terraform, the kubeconfig for your new cluster is stored as a secret on the management cluster. You can get credentials and run the test application as follows:
```
kubectl get secret -n eksa-system w01-kubeconfig -o jsonpath=‘{.data.value}' | base64 —decode > w01.kubeconfig
export KUBECONFIG=w01.kubeconfig
kubectl apply -f "https://anywhere.eks.amazonaws.com/manifests/hello-eks-a.yaml"
```
Add more workload clusters:

To add more workload clusters, go through the same steps for creating the initial workload, copying the config file to a new name (such as eksa-w02-cluster.yaml), modifying resource names, and running the create cluster command again.

Next steps:

See the Cluster management section for more information on common operational tasks like scaling and deleting the cluster.
See the Package management section for more information on post-creation curated packages installation.

Create production cluster

1 - Create Bare Metal production cluster

Prerequisite checklist

Steps

Create an initial cluster

Create separate workload clusters

With hardware CSV

Without hardware CSV

Next steps:

2 - Create CloudStack production cluster

Important

Prerequisite Checklist

Steps

Create an initial cluster

Note

Create separate workload clusters

Next steps:

3 - Create Nutanix production cluster

Important

Prerequisite Checklist

Steps

Create an initial cluster

Note

Note

Create separate workload clusters

Next steps:

4 - Create Snow production cluster

Prerequisite checklist

Steps

Create an initial cluster

Create separate workload clusters

Next steps:

5 - Create vSphere production cluster

Important

Prerequisite Checklist

Steps

Create an initial cluster

Note

Note

Create separate workload clusters

Next steps: