{"id":3463,"date":"2021-03-30T18:57:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T18:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/contentlab.com\/how-to-set-up-your-first-cluster\/"},"modified":"2021-11-16T21:53:58","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T21:53:58","slug":"how-to-set-up-your-first-cluster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/contentlab.com\/how-to-set-up-your-first-cluster\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting started with Kubernetes: how to set up your first cluster"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"3463\" class=\"elementor elementor-3463\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-18100798 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default qodef-elementor-content-no\" data-id=\"18100798\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-712c37d6\" data-id=\"712c37d6\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2ccf3e5 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"2ccf3e5\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 25-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>Kubernetes is an excellent tool for deploying and scaling complex distributed systems, but it\u2019s no secret that getting started with Kubernetes is a challenge. Most Kubernetes tutorials use a tool like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kubernetes.io\/docs\/setup\/learning-environment\/minikube\/\">Minikube<\/a>\u00a0to get you started, which doesn\u2019t teach you much about configuring production-ready clusters.<\/p><p>In this article, we\u2019ll take a different approach and show you how to set up a real-world, production-ready Kubernetes cluster using Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) and Terraform.<\/p><h2>Introducing Terraform<\/h2><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.terraform.io\/\">Hashicorp\u2019s Terraform<\/a>\u00a0is an infrastructure as code (IaC) solution that allows you to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.terraform.io\/docs\/configuration\/index.html\">declaratively<\/a>\u00a0define the desired configuration of your cloud infrastructure. Using the Terraform CLI, you can provision this configuration locally or as part of automated CI\/CD pipelines.<\/p><p>Terraform is similar to configuration tools provided by cloud platforms such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aws.amazon.com\/cloudformation\/\">AWS CloudFormation<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/azure\/azure-resource-manager\/management\/overview\">Azure Resource Manager<\/a>, but it has the advantage of being provider-agnostic. If you\u2019re not familiar with Terraform, we recommend that you first go through their\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/learn.hashicorp.com\/collections\/terraform\/aws-get-started\">getting started with AWS<\/a>\u00a0guide to learn the most important concepts.<\/p><h2>Defining infrastructure<\/h2><p>Let\u2019s build a Terraform configuration that provisions an Amazon EKS cluster and an AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) step-by-step.<\/p><p>Create the\u00a0<code>main.tf<\/code>\u00a0file with the following content:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a89cd77 elementor-widget elementor-widget-code-highlight\" data-id=\"a89cd77\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"code-highlight.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"prismjs-default copy-to-clipboard \">\n\t\t\t<pre data-line=\"\" class=\"highlight-height language-javascript line-numbers\">\n\t\t\t\t<code readonly=\"true\" class=\"language-javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<xmp>provider \"aws\" {\r\n  region = \"eu-west-1\"\r\n}\r\n\r\ndata \"aws_availability_zones\" \"azs\" {\r\n  state = \"available\"\r\n}\r\n\r\nlocals {\r\n  cluster_name = \"eks-circleci-cluster\"\r\n}<\/xmp>\n\t\t\t\t<\/code>\n\t\t\t<\/pre>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b92b12c elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"b92b12c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>In this file, we first set up the AWS provider with the region set to\u00a0<code>eu-west-1<\/code>. Feel free to change this to any other AWS region.<\/p><p>The AWS provider will check various places for valid\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/registry.terraform.io\/providers\/hashicorp\/aws\/latest\/docs#authentication\">credentials<\/a>\u00a0to use, so be sure to set these.<\/p><p>We then fetch the availability zones that we can use in this region. This makes it easier to change the region without requiring any other changes. We also set the cluster name as a variable because we\u2019ll be using this multiple times. You can change this value as well.<\/p><p>Let\u2019s configure the VPC. Add the following content to the file:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-07485ab elementor-widget elementor-widget-code-highlight\" data-id=\"07485ab\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"code-highlight.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"prismjs-default copy-to-clipboard \">\n\t\t\t<pre data-line=\"\" class=\"highlight-height language-javascript line-numbers\">\n\t\t\t\t<code readonly=\"true\" class=\"language-javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<xmp>module \"vpc\" {\r\n  source  = \"terraform-aws-modules\/vpc\/aws\"\r\n  version = \"~> 2.48\"\r\n\r\n  name = \"eks-circleci-vpc\"\r\n  cidr = \"10.0.0.0\/16\"\r\n\r\n  azs                  = slice(data.aws_availability_zones.azs.names, 0, 2)\r\n  private_subnets      = [\"10.0.1.0\/24\", \"10.0.2.0\/24\"]\r\n  public_subnets       = [\"10.0.3.0\/24\", \"10.0.4.0\/24\"]\r\n  enable_nat_gateway   = true\r\n  single_nat_gateway   = true\r\n  enable_dns_hostnames = true\r\n\r\n  tags = {\r\n    \"kubernetes.io\/cluster\/${local.cluster_name}\" = \"shared\"\r\n  }\r\n\r\n  public_subnet_tags = {\r\n    \"kubernetes.io\/cluster\/${local.cluster_name}\" = \"shared\"\r\n    \"kubernetes.io\/role\/elb\"                      = \"1\"\r\n  }\r\n\r\n  private_subnet_tags = {\r\n    \"kubernetes.io\/cluster\/${local.cluster_name}\" = \"shared\"\r\n    \"kubernetes.io\/role\/internal-elb\"             = \"1\"\r\n  }\r\n}<\/xmp>\n\t\t\t\t<\/code>\n\t\t\t<\/pre>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e8c14b7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"e8c14b7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>By using the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/registry.terraform.io\/modules\/terraform-aws-modules\/vpc\/aws\">AWS VPC module<\/a>\u00a0we greatly simplify VPC creation. We configure the VPC to use the first two AZs in the region where we deploy our Terraform template. This is the minimum number of AZs required by EKS.<\/p><p>To save costs, we only configure a single NAT gateway. The AWS VPC module will set up the routing tables properly to route everything through this single NAT gateway. We also enable\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.aws.amazon.com\/vpc\/latest\/userguide\/vpc-dns.html\">DNS hostnames<\/a>\u00a0for the VPC as this is a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.aws.amazon.com\/eks\/latest\/userguide\/network_reqs.html\">requirement for EKS<\/a>.<\/p><p>Finally, we set the tags required by EKS so that it can discover its subnets and know where to place public and private load balancers.<\/p><p>Next, let\u2019s configure the EKS cluster using the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/registry.terraform.io\/modules\/terraform-aws-modules\/eks\/aws\">AWS EKS module<\/a>.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-cc58287 elementor-widget elementor-widget-code-highlight\" data-id=\"cc58287\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"code-highlight.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"prismjs-default copy-to-clipboard \">\n\t\t\t<pre data-line=\"\" class=\"highlight-height language-javascript line-numbers\">\n\t\t\t\t<code readonly=\"true\" class=\"language-javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<xmp>module \"eks\" {\r\n  source  = \"terraform-aws-modules\/eks\/aws\"\r\n  version = \"~> 12.2\"\r\n\r\n  cluster_name    = local.cluster_name\r\n  cluster_version = \"1.17\"\r\n  subnets         = module.vpc.private_subnets\r\n  vpc_id          = module.vpc.vpc_id\r\n\r\n  worker_groups = [\r\n    {\r\n      instance_type = \"t3.large\"\r\n      asg_max_size  = 1\r\n    }\r\n  ]\r\n}<\/xmp>\n\t\t\t\t<\/code>\n\t\t\t<\/pre>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8548428 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"8548428\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>We configure the cluster to use the VPC we\u2019ve created and define a single worker group with one\u00a0<code>t3.large<\/code>\u00a0instance. This will be enough to create a simple test resource in the cluster while minimizing costs.<\/p><p>Finally, add the following configuration to the file:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ab1117d elementor-widget elementor-widget-code-highlight\" data-id=\"ab1117d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"code-highlight.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"prismjs-default copy-to-clipboard \">\n\t\t\t<pre data-line=\"\" class=\"highlight-height language-javascript line-numbers\">\n\t\t\t\t<code readonly=\"true\" class=\"language-javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<xmp>data \"aws_eks_cluster\" \"cluster\" {\r\n  name = module.eks.cluster_id\r\n}\r\n\r\ndata \"aws_eks_cluster_auth\" \"cluster\" {\r\n  name = module.eks.cluster_id\r\n}\r\n\r\nprovider \"kubernetes\" {\r\n  version = \"~> 1.9\"\r\n\r\n  host                   = data.aws_eks_cluster.cluster.endpoint\r\n  cluster_ca_certificate = base64decode(data.aws_eks_cluster.cluster.certificate_authority.0.data)\r\n  token                  = data.aws_eks_cluster_auth.cluster.token\r\n  load_config_file       = false\r\n}\r\n\r\noutput \"kubectl_config\" {\r\n  description = \"kubectl config that can be used to authenticate with the cluster\"\r\n  value       = module.eks.kubeconfig\r\n}<\/xmp>\n\t\t\t\t<\/code>\n\t\t\t<\/pre>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1d6a6fc elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1d6a6fc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>We fetch some data from the Amazon EKS cluster configuration and configure the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/registry.terraform.io\/providers\/hashicorp\/kubernetes\/latest\/docs\">Terraform Kubernetes Provider<\/a>\u00a0to authenticate with the cluster. This provider is also used within the AWS EKS module when it creates a configmap in the cluster, which gives the currently authenticated AWS user admin permissions to the cluster. This is an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.aws.amazon.com\/eks\/latest\/userguide\/add-user-role.html\">EKS-specific<\/a>\u00a0method for granting an AWS entity access to a cluster.<\/p><p>Finally, the\u00a0<code>output<\/code>\u00a0block will display the information required to authenticate with the cluster \u2013 more on that after we have provisioned the cluster.<\/p><p>We now have a Terraform configuration completely ready for spinning up an EKS cluster. Let\u2019s apply this configuration and create a test resource in our cluster.<\/p><h2>Provisioning a Kubernetes cluster<\/h2><p>Configure your shell to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/registry.terraform.io\/providers\/hashicorp\/aws\/latest\/docs#authentication\">authenticate<\/a>\u00a0the Terraform AWS provider. With your working directory in the same directory where we just created the Terraform file, initialize the workspace:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7658044 elementor-widget elementor-widget-code-highlight\" data-id=\"7658044\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"code-highlight.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"prismjs-default copy-to-clipboard \">\n\t\t\t<pre data-line=\"\" class=\"highlight-height language-javascript line-numbers\">\n\t\t\t\t<code readonly=\"true\" class=\"language-javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<xmp>$ terraform init\r\nInitializing modules...\r\nDownloading terraform-aws-modules\/eks\/aws 12.2.0 for eks...\r\n- eks in .terraform\/modules\/eks\/terraform-aws-eks-12.2.0\r\n- eks.node_groups in .terraform\/modules\/eks\/terraform-aws-eks-12.2.0\/modules\/node_groups\r\nDownloading terraform-aws-modules\/vpc\/aws 2.48.0 for vpc...\r\n- vpc in .terraform\/modules\/vpc\/terraform-aws-vpc-2.48.0\r\n\r\nInitializing the backend...\r\n\r\nInitializing provider plugins...\r\n- Checking for available provider plugins...\r\n- Downloading plugin for provider \"random\" (hashicorp\/random) 2.3.0...\r\n- Downloading plugin for provider \"aws\" (hashicorp\/aws) 3.3.0...\r\n- Downloading plugin for provider \"kubernetes\" (hashicorp\/kubernetes) 1.12.0...\r\n- Downloading plugin for provider \"local\" (hashicorp\/local) 1.4.0...\r\n- Downloading plugin for provider \"null\" (hashicorp\/null) 2.1.2...\r\n- Downloading plugin for provider \"template\" (hashicorp\/template) 2.1.2...\r\n\r\nTerraform has been successfully initialized!\r\n\r\n[...]<\/xmp>\n\t\t\t\t<\/code>\n\t\t\t<\/pre>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-08d0f3e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"08d0f3e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The\u00a0<code>terraform init<\/code>\u00a0command downloads all providers included in the config file. We can now apply and provision the VPC and the cluster.<\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: bolder;\">Note<\/span>:\u00a0<i>This will take 10 to 15 minutes to complete.<\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-660b070 elementor-widget elementor-widget-code-highlight\" data-id=\"660b070\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"code-highlight.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"prismjs-default copy-to-clipboard \">\n\t\t\t<pre data-line=\"\" class=\"highlight-height language-javascript line-numbers\">\n\t\t\t\t<code readonly=\"true\" class=\"language-javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<xmp>$ terraform apply\r\n\r\n[...]\r\n\r\nPlan: 40 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.\r\n\r\nDo you want to perform these actions?\r\n  Terraform will perform the actions described above.\r\n  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.\r\n\r\n  Enter a value: yes\r\n\r\n[...]\r\n\r\nApply complete! Resources: 40 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.\r\n\r\nOutputs:\r\n\r\n[...]<\/xmp>\n\t\t\t\t<\/code>\n\t\t\t<\/pre>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4bcb3ae elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"4bcb3ae\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>That\u2019s it: we now have an Amazon EKS cluster fully up and running.<\/p><p>Let\u2019s deploy a pod and expose it through a load balancer to ensure our cluster works as expected.<\/p><p>To authenticate with the cluster, you need to have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kubernetes.io\/docs\/tasks\/tools\/install-kubectl\/\">kubectl<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.aws.amazon.com\/eks\/latest\/userguide\/install-aws-iam-authenticator.html\">aws-iam-authenticator<\/a>\u00a0installed. The\u00a0<code>Outputs<\/code>\u00a0section at the end of\u00a0<code>terraform apply<\/code>\u00a0includes the details that you can add to your\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kubernetes.io\/docs\/concepts\/configuration\/organize-cluster-access-kubeconfig\/\">kubeconfig<\/a>\u00a0file (or to a temporary new file). Once done, let\u2019s create a new deployment and expose it:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4f1f275 elementor-widget elementor-widget-code-highlight\" data-id=\"4f1f275\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"code-highlight.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"prismjs-default copy-to-clipboard \">\n\t\t\t<pre data-line=\"\" class=\"highlight-height language-javascript line-numbers\">\n\t\t\t\t<code readonly=\"true\" class=\"language-javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<xmp>$ kubectl create deployment nginx --image=nginx\r\ndeployment.apps\/nginx created\r\n\r\n$ kubectl expose deployment\/nginx --port=80 --type=LoadBalancer\r\nservice\/nginx exposed\r\n\r\n$ kubectl get service nginx<\/xmp>\n\t\t\t\t<\/code>\n\t\t\t<\/pre>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-313f6d3 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"313f6d3\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Get the\u00a0<code>EXTERNAL-IP<\/code>\u00a0value from the final output \u2013 this is the DNS entry of the AWS load balancer. It may take a few minutes for the DNS to propagate. When it has, you will be greeted by the \u201cWelcome to nginx!\u201d page. Success!<\/p><h2>An easier way: the CircleCI aws-eks orb<\/h2><p>You\u2019ve learned one method for spinning up an Amazon EKS cluster. However, assembling the configuration and keeping it up to date was \u2014 and will continue to be \u2014 quite a bit of (manual) work.<\/p><p>Fortunately, the CircleCI\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/circleci.com\/developer\/orbs\/orb\/circleci\/aws-eks\">aws-eks orb<\/a>\u00a0can help. CircleCI\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/circleci.com\/orbs\/\">orbs<\/a>\u00a0contain pre-packaged configuration code that makes it easier to integrate with other developer tools. This is just one of the many orbs available in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/circleci.com\/developer\/orbs\">orb registry<\/a>.<\/p><p>The aws-eks orb can automatically spin up, test, and tear down an Amazon EKS cluster. You can use it to create powerful workflows where applications are tested in a clean, fully isolated, temporary EKS cluster. Let\u2019s try it.<\/p><p>A CircleCI account is the main prerequisite to get started with the orb.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/circleci.com\/signup\/\">Sign up with CircleCI<\/a>\u00a0and connect a Git repository to your account in a CircleCI project.<\/p><p>In this project, go to the\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: bolder;\">Environment Variables<\/span>\u00a0tab under\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: bolder;\">Settings<\/span>\u00a0and add the following variables so that the project can authenticate with AWS. Be sure that the AWS IAM User has the permissions required to create an EKS cluster and its dependencies. Set the value of the region variable to the region where you want to provision the cluster.<\/p><p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/contentlab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2020-09-28-k8s1.png\" width=\"600\" \/><\/p><p>Next, create the\u00a0<code>.circleci\/config.yml<\/code>\u00a0file in your Git repository and add to it the following content:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ebed796 elementor-widget elementor-widget-code-highlight\" data-id=\"ebed796\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"code-highlight.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"prismjs-default copy-to-clipboard \">\n\t\t\t<pre data-line=\"\" class=\"highlight-height language-javascript line-numbers\">\n\t\t\t\t<code readonly=\"true\" class=\"language-javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<xmp>version: 2.1\r\n\r\norbs:\r\n  aws-eks: circleci\/aws-eks@1.0.0\r\n  kubernetes: circleci\/kubernetes@0.11.1\r\n  \r\njobs:\r\n  test-cluster:\r\n    executor: aws-eks\/python3\r\n    parameters:\r\n      cluster-name:\r\n        description: |\r\n          Name of the EKS cluster\r\n        type: string\r\n    steps:\r\n      - kubernetes\/install\r\n      - aws-eks\/update-kubeconfig-with-authenticator:\r\n          cluster-name: << parameters.cluster-name >>\r\n      - run:\r\n          command: |\r\n            kubectl get services\r\n          name: Test cluster\r\n\r\nworkflows:\r\n  deployment:\r\n    jobs:\r\n      - aws-eks\/create-cluster:\r\n          cluster-name: my-first-cluster\r\n      - test-cluster:\r\n          cluster-name: my-first-cluster\r\n          requires:\r\n            - aws-eks\/create-cluster\r\n      - aws-eks\/delete-cluster:\r\n          cluster-name: my-first-cluster\r\n          requires:\r\n            - test-cluster<\/xmp>\n\t\t\t\t<\/code>\n\t\t\t<\/pre>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-25d903e0 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"25d903e0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><\/p>\n<pre><span style=\"color: var( --e-global-color-text ); font-family: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif; font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); font-size: 1rem;\">This file configures a workflow with three jobs:<\/span><br><\/pre>\n<ol>\n<li>Uses the&nbsp;<code>create-cluster<\/code>&nbsp;command from the aws-eks orb to create a cluster and its dependencies using the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/eksctl.io\/\">eksctl<\/a>&nbsp;utility<\/li>\n<li>Runs a simple test to verify the cluster works as expected<\/li>\n<li>Destroys the cluster<br><br><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Commit this file to your repository, and CircleCI will automatically start the workflow that will take 15 to 20 minutes. Of course, you can add all kinds of steps required after cluster creation, such as provisioning resources and running tests.<\/p>\n<p>Compared with the Terraform method of creating an Amazon EKS cluster that we discussed earlier, the aws-eks orb drastically simplifies and speeds up the process of managing the lifecycle of an EKS cluster. The complexity of the EKS cluster itself, as well as the configuration of its dependencies (such as the VPC), is completely abstracted away. This is a low-maintenance solution that allows you to focus your efforts on building valuable continuous integration workflows with automated tests.<\/p>\n<h2>Next steps<\/h2>\n<p>You\u2019ve learned that creating your first Kubernetes cluster doesn\u2019t have to be difficult or scary. Terraform provides an easy way to define the cluster infrastructure. Through simple CLI commands, you can easily provision the defined infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>The CircleCI orb simplifies the process even further. You can reach the same end result without writing your own Terraform code or running any commands.<\/p>\n<p>The best way to learn this is to do it yourself. Start by creating your cluster manually, using Terraform code along with its CLI. Then, try CircleCI to see just how easy and fast it is to create a cluster using the aws-eks orb.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><em>This article was originally posted on <a href=\"https:\/\/circleci.com\/\">CircleCI<\/a>.<br><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">Does your business work with Kubernetes or container-orchestration systems? If you\u2019re interested in developing expert technical content that performs,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/contentlab.com\/contact\/\">let\u2019s have a conversation<\/a>&nbsp;today.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, we\u2019ll take a different approach and show you how to set up a real-world, production-ready Kubernetes cluster using Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) and Terraform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,18,279],"tags":[301,300,299],"hashtags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Getting started with Kubernetes: how to set up your first cluster &#183; 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