EKS Auto Scale: How To?

Question

When setting up an EKS Cluster, how would one setup Auto Scaling for a Node Group?
EKS docs show settings up either the Kubernetes Auto Scaler, or Karpenter.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/autoscaling.html

But, being on EC2, there is the EC2 Auto Scaling.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/autoscaling/ec2/userguide/what-is-amazon-ec2-auto-scaling.html

Do i need just one, where either option will suffice? Do I need both? Or, will only the EKS options work for EKS nodes (that are EC2 nodes)?

A couple more items i found in re:Post:
https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/amazon-eks-troubleshoot-autoscaler

https://repost.aws/questions/QUAWIKBZyOStO4jv_kvYRb2A/difference-between-ec2-s-with-a-auto-scaling-and-ecs-or-eks-cluster-managed-ec2-machines

Accepted Answer

You only need to setup Kubernetes Cluster Autoscaler and it will use EC2 Auto Scaling feature to launch additional instances and join them into the cluster. You don't have to configure both separately. EC2 Auto Scaling alone would not suffice at it won't have the visibility into what's happening with pods within the cluster.

I would advice to explore Karpenter as it's a more comprehensive way of scaling K8S cluster, here is a link to the blog which goes into details - https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/introducing-karpenter-an-open-source-high-performance-kubernetes-cluster-autoscaler/

EKS Auto Scale: How To?

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