What is the difference between updating eks/eksctl managed addons via eksctl docs vs aws docs?

Question

I am confused as to why there are two ways to update managed addons in EKS, and they do not seem to both work together to report updated addons. Specifically, coredns and kube-proxy have one method of updating in the eksctl.io docs and another way of updating in the aws docs.

**Managed Addons that seem to have conflicting update docs:**
* coredns
* kube-proxy

**2 Different Docs:**
* https://eksctl.io/usage/addon-upgrade/
* https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/managing-add-ons.html#updating-an-add-on

**The eksctl docs say to do this:**
* eksctl utils update-kube-proxy --cluster=
* eksctl utils update-coredns --cluster=

**The AWS Docs say to do this:**  
`eksctl update addon -f update-addon.yaml`

```yaml
# update-addon.yaml
apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
kind: ClusterConfig
metadata:
  name: dev
  region: us-east-1

addons:
  - name: kube-proxy / coredns
    version: (appropriate version)
    resolveConflicts: preserve
```

**Discrepency**
I did the update via the eksctl docs, it succeeded, but the EKS console said these two addons were still out of date. That message did not go away until I did the update via the aws docs. Why?

Abhinav Chauhan · Answer

Hello,

In short eksctl tool documentation will tell on how to update add-ons using eksctl commands. I would prefer this if you are managing your EKS cluster with eksctl on the other hand AWS documentation includes updating add-ons using any of the supported interface options - eksctl, AWS CLI, or console.

The eksctl docs are maintained by the eksctl developer community, while AWS docs are maintained by AWS.

Each doc targets different use cases but serves the same purpose

Thanks

What is the difference between updating eks/eksctl managed addons via eksctl docs vs aws docs?

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