Bash Script : How to Create a k8s Cluster on AWS EKS using eksctl.

This article is a simple shell script tutorial about automating your kubernetes cluster setup on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

AWS EKS: Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a managed service and certified Kubernetes conformant to run Kubernetes on AWS and on-premises.

Eksctl: is a simple CLI tool for creating and managing clusters on EKS - Amazon's managed Kubernetes service for EC2.

Prerequisite

• Kubectl is installed
• eksctl is installed
• AWS CLI version 2 is installed
• AWS account
• IAM role with EKS permission.
• Have a Key Pair on AWS

Create an access key for your IAM user

• Login into your AWS account
• Go to IAM dashboard
• Select Users and click on your IAM user name
• Click on Security Credential Tab
• Scroll down to Access keys and Click on Create access key
• Select Command Line Interface (CLI), agree with recommendation click Next and follow the prompts.

Configure AWS CLI

# In your CLI, configure AWS cli with your access keys aws configure 

Create a file with permission

# Create file vi scriptfile.sh # Make execute permission chmod +x scriptfile.sh 

Copy and paste the code snippet below. Change the variables to your preferred names and values. Also change the values under the Creation of EKS cluster to preferred cluster requirements.

# Variables CLUSTER_NAME=my-cluster REGION=us-east-1 NODE_NAME=Linux-nodes KEY_NAME=instance # Set AWS credentials before script execution aws sts get-caller-identity >> /dev/null if [ $? -eq 0 ] then echo "Credentials tested, proceeding with the cluster creation." # Creation of EKS cluster eksctl create cluster \ --name $CLUSTER_NAME \ --version 1.22 \ --region $REGION \ --nodegroup-name $NODE_NAME \ --nodes 2 \ --nodes-min 1 \ --nodes-max 4 \ --node-type t3.micro \ --node-volume-size 8 \ --ssh-access \ --ssh-public-key $KEY_NAME \ --managed if [ $? -eq 0 ] then echo "Cluster Setup Completed with eksctl command." else echo "Cluster Setup Failed while running eksctl command." fi else echo "Please run aws configure & set right credentials." echo "Cluster setup failed." fi 

Make sure the key pair is in the same directory with the script or you specify.

aws sts get-caller-identity - checks if the AWS identity is created correctly. if [ $? -eq 0 ] - check if the last command, in this case aws sts get-caller-identity succeeded without no error. If it equals 0, it should go ahead and create the cluster. After the cluster is created, print a created message else inform us the AWS credential was not configured correctly.

Cluster Nodes on EC2 dashboard

Clean Up

 # Delete EKS Cluster eksctl delete cluster my-cluster 

As always, I look forward to getting your thoughts on this article. Please feel free to leave a comment!