eksctl Skill

This skill enables AWS EKS cluster management using the eksctl CLI tool.

Environment

• Region: us-east-1

• AWS Account: 830101142436

• eksctl Version: 0.221.0

Current Cluster

Cluster Region Kubernetes Version

production

us-east-1 1.34

eksctl vs kubectl

Tool Purpose

eksctl

Cluster infrastructure management (create/delete clusters, nodegroups, addons)

kubectl

Workload management (pods, deployments, services)

Use eksctl for cluster-level operations; use kubectl for application-level operations.

Common Operations

Cluster Management

List clusters

eksctl get cluster --region us-east-1

Get cluster info

eksctl get cluster --name production --region us-east-1

Update kubeconfig

eksctl utils write-kubeconfig --cluster production --region us-east-1

Describe cluster stacks

eksctl utils describe-stacks --cluster production --region us-east-1

Nodegroup Operations

List nodegroups

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

Create nodegroup

eksctl create nodegroup
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--name <nodegroup-name>
--node-type t3.medium
--nodes 2
--nodes-min 1
--nodes-max 4

Scale nodegroup

eksctl scale nodegroup
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--name <nodegroup-name>
--nodes 3

Delete nodegroup

eksctl delete nodegroup
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--name <nodegroup-name>

Drain nodegroup (for upgrades)

eksctl drain nodegroup
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--name <nodegroup-name>

Addon Management

List addons

eksctl get addon --cluster production --region us-east-1

Get addon details

eksctl get addon --cluster production --region us-east-1 --name <addon-name>

Create addon

eksctl create addon
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--name <addon-name>
--version <version>

Update addon

eksctl update addon
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--name <addon-name>
--version <new-version>

Delete addon

eksctl delete addon
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--name <addon-name>

Current Addons (production cluster)

Addon Version Status

adot v0.141.0-eksbuild.1 ACTIVE

amazon-cloudwatch-observability v4.8.0-eksbuild.1 ACTIVE

aws-efs-csi-driver v2.1.15-eksbuild.1 ACTIVE

aws-network-flow-monitoring-agent v1.1.1-eksbuild.1 ACTIVE

cert-manager v1.19.2-eksbuild.1 ACTIVE

eks-pod-identity-agent v1.3.10-eksbuild.2 ACTIVE

metrics-server v0.8.0-eksbuild.6 ACTIVE

IAM & OIDC

Associate OIDC provider

eksctl utils associate-iam-oidc-provider
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--approve

Create IAM service account

eksctl create iamserviceaccount
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--namespace <namespace>
--name <sa-name>
--attach-policy-arn <policy-arn>
--approve

List IAM service accounts

eksctl get iamserviceaccount --cluster production --region us-east-1

Delete IAM service account

eksctl delete iamserviceaccount
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--namespace <namespace>
--name <sa-name>

Pod Identity Associations

Create pod identity association

eksctl create podidentityassociation
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--namespace <namespace>
--service-account-name <sa-name>
--role-arn <role-arn>

List pod identity associations

eksctl get podidentityassociation --cluster production --region us-east-1

Delete pod identity association

eksctl delete podidentityassociation
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--namespace <namespace>
--service-account-name <sa-name>

Cluster Upgrades

Check available upgrades

eksctl upgrade cluster
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--dry-run

Upgrade control plane

eksctl upgrade cluster
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--version <new-version>
--approve

Upgrade nodegroup

eksctl upgrade nodegroup
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--name <nodegroup-name>
--kubernetes-version <new-version>

Access Management

Get access entries

eksctl get accessentry --cluster production --region us-east-1

Create access entry

eksctl create accessentry
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--principal-arn <arn>

Delete access entry

eksctl delete accessentry
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--principal-arn <arn>

Fargate Profiles

List Fargate profiles

eksctl get fargateprofile --cluster production --region us-east-1

Create Fargate profile

eksctl create fargateprofile
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--name <profile-name>
--namespace <namespace>

Delete Fargate profile

eksctl delete fargateprofile
--cluster production
--region us-east-1
--name <profile-name>

Cluster Creation (Reference)

For creating new clusters (typically done via Terraform in this project):

Create cluster with config file

eksctl create cluster -f cluster-config.yaml

Create cluster with CLI options

eksctl create cluster
--name <cluster-name>
--region us-east-1
--version 1.34
--nodegroup-name <ng-name>
--node-type t3.medium
--nodes 2
--managed

Output Formatting

JSON output

eksctl get cluster --region us-east-1 -o json

YAML output

eksctl get cluster --region us-east-1 -o yaml

Troubleshooting

Check CloudFormation Stacks

eksctl uses CloudFormation under the hood:

Describe stacks

eksctl utils describe-stacks --cluster production --region us-east-1

Check for stack issues

aws cloudformation describe-stack-events
--stack-name eksctl-production-cluster
--region us-east-1

Common Issues

Issue Cause Solution

No nodegroups found

Nodegroups managed by Karpenter Use kubectl get nodepools instead

ResourceInUseException

Resource being modified Wait and retry

AccessDenied

Missing IAM permissions Check IAM roles

Integration Notes

• Karpenter: This cluster uses Karpenter for node provisioning instead of managed nodegroups

• kubectl: Use kubectl skill for workload operations (k1 for production, k2 for staging)

• ArgoCD/Kargo: Use GitOps skills for application deployments

• AWS CLI: Use aws-cli skill for other AWS resource management