1.3 Create an EKS Cluster

Now that you have a project configured to use AWS, you’ll need an AWS VPC configured for EKS. Let’s create that using Pulumi Crosswalk for AWS.

Step 1 — Define the VPC

Define your VPC. We’re going to create a VPC with public and private subnets like so:

const name = 'lbriggs-workshop' // replace this with your name!
const clusName = `${name}-cluster`
const clusterTag = `kubernetes.io/cluster/${clusName}`

// this defines a valid VPC that can be used for EKS
const vpc = new awsx.ec2.Vpc(`vpc-${name}`, {
    cidrBlock: "172.16.0.0/24",
    subnets: [
        {
            type: "private",
            tags: {
                [clusterTag]: "owned",
                "kubernetes.io/role/internal-elb": "1",
            }
        },
        {
            type: "public",
            tags: {
                [clusterTag]: "owned",
                "kubernetes.io/role/elb": "1",
            }
        }],
    tags: {
        Name: `${name}-vpc`,
    }
});

The index.ts file should now have the following contents:

import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as aws from "@pulumi/aws";
import * as awsx from "@pulumi/awsx/classic";

const name = 'lbriggs-workshop'
const clusName = `${name}-cluster`
const clusterTag = `kubernetes.io/cluster/${clusName}`

// this defines a valid VPC that can be used for EKS
const vpc = new awsx.ec2.Vpc(`vpc-${name}`, {
    cidrBlock: "172.16.0.0/24",
    subnets: [
        {
            type: "private",
            tags: {
                [clusterTag]: "owned",
                "kubernetes.io/role/internal-elb": "1",
            }
        },
        {
            type: "public",
            tags: {
                [clusterTag]: "owned",
                "kubernetes.io/role/elb": "1",
            }
        }],
    tags: {
        Name: `${name}-vpc`,
    }
});

There are a couple things to break down here. The first is that we are specifying some important tags on the subnets inside the VPC, which are necessarily for some later components.

The second thing to note is that we’ve defined some thing as variables, so that we don’t make mistakes later.

Step 2 — Define the Amazon EKS Cluster

We’ll now add an EKS cluster in this project. In order to do this, we’ll use the Pulumi EKS package. Let’s install it first:

npm install @pulumi/eks

And then we can add an EKS cluster to our index.ts file:

import * as eks from "@pulumi/eks";

const cluster = new eks.Cluster(name, {
    name: clusName,
    vpcId: vpc.id,
    privateSubnetIds: vpc.privateSubnetIds,
    publicSubnetIds: vpc.publicSubnetIds,
    instanceType: "t2.medium",
    desiredCapacity: 2,
    minSize: 1,
    maxSize: 2,
    createOidcProvider: true,
});

The index.ts file should now have the following contents:

import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as aws from "@pulumi/aws";
import * as awsx from "@pulumi/awsx/classic";
import * as eks from "@pulumi/eks";

const name = 'lbriggs-workshop'
const clusName = `${name}-cluster`
const clusterTag = `kubernetes.io/cluster/${clusName}`

// this defines a valid VPC that can be used for EKS
const vpc = new awsx.ec2.Vpc(`vpc-${name}`, {
    cidrBlock: "172.16.0.0/24",
    subnets: [
        {
            type: "private",
            tags: {
                [clusterTag]: "owned",
                "kubernetes.io/role/internal-elb": "1",
            }
        },
        {
            type: "public",
            tags: {
                [clusterTag]: "owned",
                "kubernetes.io/role/elb": "1",
            }
        }],
    tags: {
        Name: `${name}-vpc`,
    }
});

const cluster = new eks.Cluster(name, {
    name: clusName,
    vpcId: vpc.id,
    privateSubnetIds: vpc.privateSubnetIds,
    publicSubnetIds: vpc.publicSubnetIds,
    instanceType: "t2.medium",
    desiredCapacity: 2,
    minSize: 1,
    maxSize: 2,
    createOidcProvider: true,
});

Again, notice how we’re use the variables we’ve defined to reduce possible mistakes. In addition to this, we’re passing outputs from our VPC to our EKS cluster.

Step 3 — Preview Your Changes

Now preview your changes:

pulumi up

This command evaluates your program, determines the resource updates to make, and shows you an outline of these changes:


pulumi up
Previewing update (dev)

View Live: https://app.pulumi.com/jaxxstorm/workshop-cluster/dev/previews/a23fbd93-81da-49b5-bb5b-22beeb69f487

     Type                                    Name                                           Plan
 +   pulumi:pulumi:Stack                     workshop-cluster-dev                           create
 +   ├─ awsx❌ec2:Vpc                       vpc-lbriggs-workshop                                create
 +   │  ├─ awsx❌ec2:Subnet                 vpc-lbriggs-workshop-public-1                       create
 +   │  │  ├─ aws:ec2:RouteTable             vpc-lbriggs-workshop-public-1                       create
 +   │  │  ├─ aws:ec2:Subnet                 vpc-lbriggs-workshop-public-1                       create
 +   │  │  ├─ aws:ec2:Route                  vpc-lbriggs-workshop-public-1-ig                    create
 +   │  │  └─ aws:ec2:RouteTableAssociation  vpc-lbriggs-workshop-public-1                       create
 +   │  ├─ awsx❌ec2:NatGateway             vpc-lbriggs-workshop-0                              create
 +   │  │  ├─ aws:ec2:Eip                    vpc-lbriggs-workshop-0                              create

.... redacted ...

Resources:
    + 59 to create

Do you want to perform this update?  [Use arrows to move, enter to select, type to filter]
  yes
> no
  details

This is a summary view and has been redacted for its length. In less than 50 lines of code, we’re defining a best practice VPC and an Amazon EKS cluster.

Step 4 — Deploy Your Changes

Now that we’ve seen the full set of changes, let’s deploy them. Select yes:

This creation process will take a little while, please be patient.

Do you want to perform this update? yes
Updating (dev)

View Live: https://app.pulumi.com/jaxxstorm/workshop-cluster/dev/updates/3

     Type                                    Name                                           Status       Info
 +   pulumi:pulumi:Stack                     workshop-cluster-dev                           creating...
 +   ├─ eks:index:Cluster                    lbriggs-workshop                                    creating.
 +   │  ├─ eks:index:ServiceRole             lbriggs-workshop-instanceRole                       created
 +   │  │  ├─ aws:iam:Role                   lbriggs-workshop-instanceRole-role                  created
 +   │  │  ├─ aws:iam:RolePolicyAttachment   lbriggs-workshop-instanceRole-e1b295bd              created
 +   │  │  ├─ aws:iam:RolePolicyAttachment   lbriggs-workshop-instanceRole-3eb088f2              created
 +   ├─ eks:index:Cluster                    lbriggs-workshop                                    creating...
 +   ├─ eks:index:Cluster                    lbriggs-workshop                                    creating.
 +   ├─ eks:index:Cluster                    lbriggs-workshop                                    creating..
......

 +      ├─ awsx❌ec2:NatGateway             vpc-lbriggs-workshop-1                              created
 +      │  ├─ aws:ec2:Eip                    vpc-lbriggs-workshop-1                              created
 +      │  └─ aws:ec2:NatGateway             vpc-lbriggs-workshop-1                              created
 +      └─ aws:ec2:Vpc                       vpc-lbriggs-workshop                                created

Resources:
    + 59 created

Duration: 14m33s

At this stage, you should have a working EKS cluster.

Step 5 — Access your Cluster

Now that we have a cluster provisioned, we need to export our KUBECONFIG from the cluster so we can interact with it.

Add the following to the end of the index.ts file:

export const kubeconfig = cluster.kubeconfig
export const clusterName = clusName
export const vpcId = vpc.id
export const clusterOidcProvider = cluster.core.oidcProvider?.url
export const clusterOidcProviderArn = cluster.core.oidcProvider?.arn

The index.ts file should now have the following contents:

import * as pulumi from "@pulumi/pulumi";
import * as aws from "@pulumi/aws";
import * as awsx from "@pulumi/awsx/classic";
import * as eks from "@pulumi/eks";

const name = 'lbriggs-workshop'
const clusName = `${name}-cluster`
const clusterTag = `kubernetes.io/cluster/${clusName}`

// this defines a valid VPC that can be used for EKS
const vpc = new awsx.ec2.Vpc(`vpc-${name}`, {
    cidrBlock: "172.16.0.0/24",
    subnets: [
        {
            type: "private",
            tags: {
                [clusterTag]: "owned",
                "kubernetes.io/role/internal-elb": "1",
            }
        },
        {
            type: "public",
            tags: {
                [clusterTag]: "owned",
                "kubernetes.io/role/elb": "1",
            }
        }],
    tags: {
        Name: `${name}-vpc`,
    }
});

const cluster = new eks.Cluster(name, {
    name: clusName,
    vpcId: vpc.id,
    privateSubnetIds: vpc.privateSubnetIds,
    publicSubnetIds: vpc.publicSubnetIds,
    instanceType: "t2.medium",
    desiredCapacity: 2,
    minSize: 1,
    maxSize: 2,
    createOidcProvider: true,
});

export const kubeconfig = cluster.kubeconfig
export const clusterName = clusName
export const vpcId = vpc.id
export const clusterOidcProvider = cluster.core.oidcProvider?.url
export const clusterOidcProviderArn = cluster.core.oidcProvider?.arn

This creates some outputs, one of which is the KUBECONFIG (the other two will be used later).

Re-run your pulumi up command and hit yes, which will create some Outputs you can use:

Do you want to perform this update? yes
Updating (dev)

View Live: https://app.pulumi.com/jaxxstorm/workshop-cluster/dev/updates/4

     Type                   Name                         Status
     pulumi:pulumi:Stack    workshop-cluster-dev
     └─ eks:index:Cluster   lbriggs-workshop
        └─ aws:eks:Cluster  lbriggs-workshop-eksCluster

Outputs:
  + clusterOidcProvider   : "oidc.eks.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/id/6C8ED2C48B8B2BD3022877F93BF16E7D"
  + clusterOidcProviderArn: "arn:aws:iam::616138583583:oidc-provider/oidc.eks.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/id/6C8ED2C48B8B2BD3022877F93BF16E7D"
  + kubeconfig            : {
      + apiVersion     : "v1"

...

Once the outputs have been created, we can output the KUBECONFIG to a file using the pulumi stack output command:

pulumi stack output kubeconfig | tee ~/.kube/config

This will give us the ability to use the kubectl command with our cluster. Let’s try that now:

kubectl get nodes
NAME                                         STATUS   ROLES    AGE     VERSION
ip-172-16-0-101.us-west-1.compute.internal   Ready    <none>   9m10s   v1.18.9-eks-d1db3c
ip-172-16-0-28.us-west-1.compute.internal    Ready    <none>   9m18s   v1.18.9-eks-d1db3c

We’re now ready to deploy resources to our EKS cluster.