Amazon EKS — Creating Your First Cluster

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Chapter 3 — Creating Your First EKS Cluster

This is the chapter where theory meets practice. You’ll create your first EKS cluster, deploy a test application, and then clean everything up to avoid unnecessary costs.

What You’ll Learn

  • Create an EKS cluster using the eksctl CLI
  • Create a cluster using a YAML configuration file
  • Set up kubeconfig to connect kubectl to your cluster
  • Verify the cluster is working
  • Clean up resources to avoid costs

Chapter Topics

# Topic Description
1 eksctl create cluster Create your first cluster with one command
2 Cluster Config YAML Use a config file for reproducible clusters
3 Kubeconfig Setup Connect kubectl to your EKS cluster
4 Verify Cluster Confirm everything is running correctly
5 Cleanup Cluster Delete resources to avoid ongoing costs
6 Practice Exercises 5 hands-on exercises

Prerequisites for This Chapter

  • All tools installed (AWS CLI, eksctl, kubectl, Helm) — see Chapter 2
  • AWS credentials configured with adequate permissions
  • At least $5 in your AWS account (cluster costs ~$0.20/hour total)

What You’ll Build

Your First EKS Cluster
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  VPC (192.168.0.0/16)                                │
│                                                      │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐                   │
│  │ Public Sub  │  │ Public Sub  │  ← Internet GW    │
│  │  (AZ-a)    │  │  (AZ-b)    │                   │
│  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘                   │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐                   │
│  │ Private Sub │  │ Private Sub │  ← NAT GW        │
│  │  (AZ-a)    │  │  (AZ-b)    │                   │
│  │ ┌─────────┐│  │ ┌─────────┐│                   │
│  │ │Worker   ││  │ │Worker   ││  ← 2x t3.medium   │
│  │ │Node 1   ││  │ │Node 2   ││                   │
│  │ └─────────┘│  │ └─────────┘│                   │
│  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘                   │
│                                                      │
│  EKS Control Plane (managed by AWS)                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

💰 Cost: This cluster will cost approximately $0.20/hour ($0.10 cluster + $0.08 for 2 nodes + NAT). Delete it when you’re done to stop charges.

Ready? Let’s create your first cluster: eksctl create cluster.

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