Amazon EKS — Cluster Creation
There are multiple ways to create an EKS cluster. This chapter covers three approaches — eksctl, Terraform, and the AWS Console — along with kubeconfig setup, EKS add-ons, and a hands-on lab.
Topics Covered
| # | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | eksctl Quickstart | Create a cluster with eksctl in minutes |
| 2 | Terraform EKS Module | Infrastructure as code with the official Terraform module |
| 3 | AWS Console Setup | Step-by-step Console walkthrough (not for production) |
| 4 | kubeconfig & Access | Configure kubectl to talk to your cluster |
| 5 | EKS Add-ons | Manage core cluster components (VPC CNI, CoreDNS, kube-proxy) |
| 6 | Hands-On Lab | Create an EKS cluster step by step |
| 7 | Practice Questions | Test your cluster creation knowledge |
Cluster Creation Methods Compared
| Method | Best For | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| eksctl | Quick setup, learning, prototyping | Simple, fast, handles VPC + IAM | Less control, hard to customize deeply |
| Terraform | Production, IaC, repeatability | Full control, state management, modularity | More setup work, HCL learning curve |
| AWS Console | Visual exploration, one-time setups | Visual, step-by-step | Not repeatable, manual, error-prone |
| AWS CDK | TypeScript/Python infrastructure | Programmatic, type-safe | Another abstraction layer |
| Pulumi | Multi-language IaC | Familiar programming languages | Smaller ecosystem than Terraform |
Recommendation: Use eksctl for learning and quick experiments. Use Terraform for anything going to production.
