Ahmed Salem
Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to bridge the gap between on-premises infrastructure and the cloud. The new Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes feature enables organizations to extend their Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) clusters to include on-premises resources. This hybrid approach provides enhanced flexibility and scalability, empowering businesses to leverage their existing infrastructure while enjoying the benefits of Kubernetes orchestration in the cloud.
In this article, we’ll explore what Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes are, how they work, and how they can help you integrate on-premises resources seamlessly into your EKS clusters.
Overview: What Are Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes?
Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes allow organizations to use their on-premises servers, virtual machines (VMs), or edge devices as worker nodes in an EKS cluster. This feature makes it easier to manage workloads that require low latency, data residency compliance, or closer proximity to on-premises systems.
With Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes, you can deploy containerized applications on your existing infrastructure while managing everything from a single EKS control plane.
Key Benefits
1. Extend Kubernetes Clusters On-Premises
EKS Hybrid Nodes enable you to extend your Kubernetes clusters beyond AWS, incorporating on-premises resources into a unified infrastructure.
2. Seamless Integration
EKS Hybrid Nodes operate independently and do not require services like AWS Outposts or Amazon ECS Anywhere. Instead, they seamlessly integrate on-premises infrastructure into EKS clusters, providing flexibility without additional dependencies.
3. Centralized Management
Manage your on-premises and cloud-based workloads using the same EKS control plane, simplifying operations and providing a consistent Kubernetes experience.
4. Support for Edge Use Cases
Deploy workloads on edge devices or in locations with limited cloud connectivity while maintaining centralized control through EKS.
How Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes Work
The following diagram illustrates the hybrid network connectivity, node setup, and integration between on-premises environments and AWS:
Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes enable seamless integration between your on-premises infrastructure and the Amazon EKS control plane. Here’s how it works:
• Hybrid network connectivity using:
• AWS Site-to-Site VPN
• AWS Direct Connect
• Another VPN solution
• A VPC with routing configurations for remote nodes and pods, using a Virtual Private Gateway (VGW) or Transit Gateway (TGW).
• Physical or virtual machines as infrastructure.
• Compatible operating systems, such as:
• Amazon Linux 2023
• Ubuntu (20.04, 22.04, 24.04)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 8 or 9)
• IAM roles:
• EKS Cluster IAM Role
• EKS Hybrid Nodes IAM Role
• AWS Systems Manager or IAM Roles Anywhere for node authentication.
Setting Up Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes
1. Prerequisites
Ensure the prerequisites we mentioned above are in place before your on-premises infrastructure can join your EKS cluster as hybrid nodes.
2. Create an EKS Cluster and Enable Hybrid Nodes
1. Navigate to the Amazon EKS Console
Open the Amazon EKS Console and begin creating a new cluster.
2. Specify Networking for Hybrid Nodes
On the Step 2: Specify Networking screen, enable the option Configure remote networks to enable hybrid nodes and specify the Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) blocks for your on-premises environments.
3. CIDR Configuration Guidelines
• The CIDRs for remote nodes and remote pods must:
Use RFC-1918 IPv4 addresses (private IP ranges).
Not overlap with the VPC CIDR or the EKS cluster Kubernetes service CIDR.
• The remote node CIDR and remote pod CIDR must not overlap.
• Specifying a pod CIDR block is mandatory if:
You run webhooks on your hybrid nodes.
Your CNI plugin doesn’t use NAT for pod addresses as traffic leaves your nodes.
3. Connect Your Hybrid Nodes to the EKS Cluster
With the EKS cluster configured, the next step is to connect your on-premises infrastructure to the cluster as hybrid nodes. Use the Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes CLI (nodeadm) to automate the installation, configuration, and registration of your hybrid nodes.
Install the required components:
$ nodeadm install 1.31 --credential-provider <ssm, iam-ra>
2. Create a nodeConfig.yaml file:
apiVersion: node.eks.aws/v1alpha1
kind: NodeConfig
metadata:
name: hybrid-node
spec:
cluster:
name: my-cluster
region: us-east-1
hybrid:
ssm:
activationCode: <activation-code>
activationId: <activation-id>
3. Register the hybrid node with the cluster:
$ nodeadm init -c file://nodeConfig.yaml
4. Verify node readiness:
Use the EKS console or the following command to confirm that the node has joined:
kubectl get nodes
Ensure the nodes are in the Ready state after installing the required CNI plugin.
Note: Before the hybrid nodes are marked as Ready, you need to install a compatible CNI plugin. For more information, refer to Install CNI for EKS Hybrid Nodes.
4. Deploy Workloads
Use Kubernetes-native tools such as kubectl and Helm charts to deploy workloads to both cloud-based and hybrid nodes.
5. Monitor and Optimize
Monitor your cluster’s performance using Amazon CloudWatch and other observability tools. Ensure that hybrid nodes are scaling effectively and meeting workload demands.
Conclusion
Amazon EKS Hybrid Nodes open new possibilities for organizations looking to unify their cloud and on-premises resources under a single Kubernetes control plane. By enabling seamless integration of on-premises infrastructure with EKS, this feature offers unparalleled flexibility, scalability, and consistency for modern application deployment.
Whether you’re running edge workloads, ensuring data compliance, or modernizing legacy systems, EKS Hybrid Nodes provide a powerful solution to meet your hybrid cloud needs. Explore this feature today and unlock the full potential of Kubernetes on your terms.
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