Amazon EKS — eksctl Quickstart

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The eksctl is the fastest way to create an EKS cluster. One command gives you a fully working cluster with a VPC, subnets, IAM roles, and managed node groups.

What is eksctl?

eksctl is the official CLI tool for Amazon EKS, originally built by Weaveworks (now maintained by the community and AWS). It abstracts away the dozens of AWS resources needed for a cluster into simple commands and YAML configs.

Behind the scenes, eksctl creates CloudFormation stacks for:

  • VPC with public and private subnets
  • NAT Gateways
  • IAM roles (cluster role, node role)
  • EKS cluster
  • Managed node groups
  • Security groups

Create a Cluster — One Command

eksctl create cluster \
  --name my-cluster \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --version 1.29 \
  --nodegroup-name standard-nodes \
  --node-type m5.large \
  --nodes 2 \
  --nodes-min 1 \
  --nodes-max 4 \
  --managed

This creates:

  • A VPC with public and private subnets in 3 AZs
  • An EKS cluster with Kubernetes 1.29
  • A managed node group with 2x m5.large instances
  • All necessary IAM roles and security groups
  • kubeconfig automatically updated

Duration: ~15-20 minutes (EKS cluster creation takes time)

Create a Cluster — YAML Config File

For more control, use a ClusterConfig YAML file:

# cluster.yaml
apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
kind: ClusterConfig

metadata:
  name: my-cluster
  region: us-east-1
  version: "1.29"

iam:
  withOIDC: true  # Required for IRSA

managedNodeGroups:
  - name: general
    instanceType: m5.large
    minSize: 2
    maxSize: 6
    desiredCapacity: 3
    volumeSize: 50
    volumeType: gp3
    privateNetworking: true
    labels:
      role: general
    tags:
      environment: production
    iam:
      withAddonPolicies:
        ebs: true
        efs: true
        albIngress: true
        cloudWatch: true

  - name: spot-workers
    instanceTypes:
      - m5.large
      - m5a.large
      - m4.large
    spot: true
    minSize: 0
    maxSize: 10
    desiredCapacity: 2
    privateNetworking: true
    labels:
      role: spot-worker

cloudWatch:
  clusterLogging:
    enableTypes:
      - api
      - audit
      - authenticator
      - controllerManager
      - scheduler

addons:
  - name: vpc-cni
    version: latest
  - name: coredns
    version: latest
  - name: kube-proxy
    version: latest

Apply the config:

eksctl create cluster -f cluster.yaml

eksctl Managed Node Groups

Managed node groups are the recommended compute option. eksctl can create them during cluster creation or add them later.

Add a Node Group

eksctl create nodegroup \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --name new-nodes \
  --node-type m5.xlarge \
  --nodes 3 \
  --nodes-min 2 \
  --nodes-max 5 \
  --managed

List Node Groups

eksctl get nodegroup --cluster my-cluster --region us-east-1

Delete a Node Group

eksctl delete nodegroup \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --name old-nodes

eksctl Fargate Profiles

You can create Fargate profiles to run pods serverlessly:

# In cluster.yaml
fargateProfiles:
  - name: fp-default
    selectors:
      - namespace: default
      - namespace: kube-system
  - name: fp-app
    selectors:
      - namespace: production
        labels:
          compute: fargate

Or via CLI:

eksctl create fargateprofile \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --name fp-app \
  --namespace production

Common eksctl Commands

Command Description
eksctl create cluster -f config.yaml Create a cluster from config
eksctl get cluster --region us-east-1 List clusters
eksctl delete cluster --name my-cluster Delete a cluster and all resources
eksctl create nodegroup -f config.yaml Add node groups
eksctl delete nodegroup --cluster my-cluster --name ng Remove a node group
eksctl upgrade cluster --name my-cluster --version 1.30 Upgrade cluster version
eksctl utils associate-iam-oidc-provider --cluster my-cluster --approve Enable OIDC for IRSA
eksctl create iamserviceaccount --name sa --namespace ns --cluster my-cluster --attach-policy-arn arn:... --approve Create IRSA service account

Pros and Cons of eksctl

Pros Cons
Simplest way to create an EKS cluster Uses CloudFormation (slow, hard to debug)
Handles VPC, IAM, node groups automatically Limited customization compared to Terraform
Great for learning and prototyping State is in CloudFormation (not easily portable)
Official AWS-supported tool YAML config can get complex for large setups
Supports Fargate, Spot, Graviton Less visibility into what’s being created

Clean Up

Delete a cluster and all associated resources:

eksctl delete cluster --name my-cluster --region us-east-1

This deletes:

  • The EKS cluster
  • All node groups
  • The VPC and subnets (if eksctl created them)
  • IAM roles
  • CloudFormation stacks

Warning: Make sure no external resources (like manually created ALBs or EBS volumes) are still attached — eksctl won’t delete those.

What’s Next?

Let’s look at the Terraform approach for production-grade infrastructure as code.

Next: Terraform EKS Module →

Updated:

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