Amazon EKS — Fargate Profiles

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Fargate Profiles

A Fargate profile tells EKS which pods should run on Fargate. It uses namespace and label selectors to match pods.

How Profiles Work

Pod Scheduling Decision
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  New pod created                           │
│       │                                    │
│       ▼                                    │
│  Does it match a Fargate profile?          │
│  (namespace + labels)                      │
│       │                                    │
│  ┌────┴────┐                               │
│  │ Yes     │ No                            │
│  │         │                               │
│  ▼         ▼                               │
│  Fargate   EC2 node                        │
│  (microVM) (if available)                  │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Create Fargate Profiles

By Namespace

fargateProfiles:
  - name: batch-profile
    selectors:
      - namespace: batch    # All pods in 'batch' namespace → Fargate

By Namespace + Labels

fargateProfiles:
  - name: app-profile
    selectors:
      - namespace: production
        labels:
          compute: fargate    # Only matching pods → Fargate

Multiple Selectors

fargateProfiles:
  - name: multi-profile
    selectors:
      - namespace: default
      - namespace: staging
      - namespace: batch
        labels:
          type: job

Manage Profiles with eksctl

# Create profile
$ eksctl create fargateprofile \
    --cluster demo \
    --name batch \
    --namespace batch

# List profiles
$ eksctl get fargateprofile --cluster demo

# Delete profile
$ eksctl delete fargateprofile --cluster demo --name batch

Common Mistakes

Mistake Fix
Forgetting kube-system profile CoreDNS can’t run on Fargate without it
Too broad selectors All pods go to Fargate (expensive)
No profile for namespace Pods stay Pending if no EC2 nodes exist

What’s Next?

Before going all-in on Fargate, understand the limits: Fargate Limitations.

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