How do I create multiple node groups for Amazon EKS nodes with eksctl?

Short description

You can create a node group with eksctl and default parameters. Or, create one with custom parameters and a configuration file for multiple node groups.

To install the latest version of eksctl, see Installation on the eksctl website.

To confirm that eksctl is configured and installed on the terminal with the correct permissions, run the following command:

$ eksctl version

Then, choose one of the following resolutions based on the type of parameters you want to use.

Resolution

Create a node group with default parameters

1. To create an additional node group with default parameters, run this command:

   $ eksctl create nodegroup --cluster=yourClusterName --name=yourNodeGroupName --region yourRegionName

2. The following are the default parameters:

   Instance type = m5.largeAMI : lastest AWS EKS AMI
   Nodes-desired capacity = 2
   Nodes-min capacity =2 
   Nodes-max capacity=2

   Note: By default, new node groups inherit the version of Kubernetes from the control plane (–version=auto). You can specify a different version of Kubernetes (for example, version=1.27). To use the latest version of Kubernetes, run the –version=latest command.

3. To confirm that the new node groups are attached to the cluster and verify that the nodes have joined the cluster, run these commands:

   $ kubectl get nodes
   $ eksctl get nodegroups --cluster yourClusterName --region yourRegionName

   In the output, confirm that the node's status is READY and the node group status is ACTIVE. For example:

   Nodegroup status

   $ eksctl get nodegroups --cluster yourClusterName --region yourRegionName
   
   CLUSTER      NODEGROUP  STATUS  CREATED   MIN SIZE  MAX SIZE  DESIRED CAPACITY    INSTANCE TYPE    IMAGE ID    ASG NAME   TYPE  
   clusterName  ngWorkers  ACTIVE  Date&Time    *        *              *             m5.large      AL2_x86_64   ASGNAME   managed
   

   ****Node status

   ---

   $ kubectl get nodes
   
   NAME                                    STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION         
   ip-***-**-**-***.region.compute.internal Ready <none> 4h v1.2x.x-eks-xx  
   ip-***-**-***-**.region.compute.internal Ready <none> 4h v1.2x.x-eks-xx
   
   Create a node group with custom parameters
   
   

Create a node group with custom parameters

1. Define the parameters for the new node group in a configuration file. For example:

   kind: ClusterConfig
   apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
   metadata:
       name: clusterName
       region: region
   nodeGroups:
     - name: ngWorkers
       availabilityZones: ["az-name"]
       desiredCapacity: 3
       instanceType: m5.large
       iam:
         instanceProfileARN: "arn:aws:iam::11111:instance-profile/eks-nodes-base-role" #Attaching IAM role
         instanceRoleARN: "arn:aws:iam::1111:role/eks-nodes-base-role"
       privateNetworking: true
       securityGroups:
         withShared: true
         withLocal: true
         attachIDs: ['sg-11111', 'sg-11112']
       ssh:
         publicKeyName: 'my-instance-key'
       kubeletExtraConfig:
           kubeReserved:
               cpu: "300m"
               memory: "300Mi"
               ephemeral-storage: "1Gi"
           kubeReservedCgroup: "/kube-reserved"
           systemReserved:
               cpu: "300m"
               memory: "300Mi"
               ephemeral-storage: "1Gi"
       tags:
         'environment': 'development'
     - name: ng-2-builders #example of a nodegroup that uses 50% spot instances and 50% on demand instances:
       minSize: 2
       maxSize: 5
       instancesDistribution:
         maxPrice: 0.017
         instanceTypes: ["t3.small", "t3.medium"] # At least two instance types should be specified
         onDemandBaseCapacity: 0
         onDemandPercentageAboveBaseCapacity: 50
         spotInstancePools: 2
       tags:
         'environment': 'production'

   For more information on supported parameters and nodegroup types, see Nodegroups on the eksctl website.

2. To create an additional node group with the configuration file, run the following command:

   $ eksctl create nodegroup --config-file=yourConfigFileName

3. (Optional) The command in step 2 deploys an AWS CloudFormation stack to create resources for EKS node group. To check the stack status, access the CloudFormation console and confirm that the AWS Region is the same as the cluster's. 
   After the stack is in a CREATE_COMPLETE state, the eksctl command exits successfully.

4. To confirm that the new node groups are attached to the cluster and to verify that the nodes joined the cluster, run these commands:

   $ kubectl get nodes
   $ eksctl get nodegroups --cluster yourClusterName --region yourRegionName

   In the output, confirm that the node's status is READY and the node group status is ACTIVE. For example:
   Nodegroup status

   $ eksctl get nodegroups --cluster yourClusterName --region yourRegionName
   
   CLUSTER      NODEGROUP  STATUS  CREATED   MIN SIZE  MAX SIZE  DESIRED CAPACITY    INSTANCE TYPE    IMAGE ID    ASG NAME   TYPE  
   clusterName  ngWorkers  ACTIVE  Date&Time    *        *              *             m5.large      AL2_x86_64   ASGNAME   managed

   Node status

   $ kubectl get nodes
   
   NAME                                    STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION         
   ip-***-**-**-***.region.compute.internal Ready <none> 4h v1.2x.x-eks-xx  
   ip-***-**-***-**.region.compute.internal Ready <none> 4h v1.2x.x-eks-xx