Containers

Introducing the HAQM EKS Auto Mode workshop

Today we are delighted to introduce the HAQM Elastic Kubernetes (HAQM EKS) Auto Mode hands-on workshop. You can run this workshop in your own AWS account, or register to attend one of our AWS hosted events.

EKS Auto Mode, a new capability to streamline Kubernetes operations on AWS, was made generally available at re:Invent 2024. Eliminating the operational overhead of managing the cluster infrastructure needed to run production-grade Kubernetes applications at scale means that EKS Auto Mode enables you to instead focus on building applications that drive innovation for your organization. The workshop we’re launching today aims to give you the hands-on knowledge and skills needed to quickly launch Kubernetes applications with EKS Auto Mode. To learn more about EKS Auto Mode, you can read the launch post.

What is the EKS Auto Mode workshop?

The EKS Auto Mode workshop provides you with the necessary knowledge to deploy a workload to HAQM EKS using Auto Mode, and gain an understanding of how it can streamline the operational overheads of running Kubernetes applications. The workshop is abstracted into a series of high-level learning modules, each of which builds on the knowledge you gained previously. There is also a standalone lab that covers how to migrate to EKS Auto Mode, which you can optionally complete. It should take approximately two hours to finish the workshop.

During the workshop, you go through the following steps:

  • Learn how to enable EKS Auto Mode: You enable EKS Auto Mode on an existing cluster through your preferred cluster administration method, whether it’s using the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), Terraform, the EKS CLI (eksctl), or the console.
  • Master application deployment: When you have enabled Auto Mode, it’s possible to deploy an application with just a single command, and with no further configuration needed. EKS Auto Mode assesses the requirements of your application to choose and launch the optimal compute instances, dynamically scale resources, and continuously optimize costs.
  • Discover the built in EKS Auto Mode capabilities: You gradually modify different components of the deployed Retail Store app that you’ve already deployed. This allows you to dive deep into the different capabilities and configuration options available across Compute, Autoscaling, Networking, and Storage. By the end of this module you will have deployed a highly available, auto scaled, load balanced, and externally available set of applications with both stateful and stateless components. These form a fully functional Retail Store sample application.
  • Experience streamlined cluster upgrades: You can understand how EKS Auto Mode streamlines the process of completing a cluster upgrade, and get hands-on experience of running an upgrade to the next Kubernetes version.
  • Understand how to migrate existing workloads: You can learn how to migrate applications that are already deployed in your cluster to EKS Auto Mode. This module is optional, in case it’s not relevant for you.

By the end of this workshop you will have an understanding of how AWS expands its operational responsibility with EKS Auto Mode. This makes it much clearer to launch Kubernetes applications on AWS, and to have all the knowledge needed to get started today.

Who is the workshop for?

The workshop is L300 and designed for users with a basic understanding of Kubernetes and HAQM EKS.

Prerequisites for running this in your own account 

To begin the EKS Auto Mode workshop in your AWS account, you first provision the baseline infrastructure that is used in the workshop. To automate these steps, the workshop uses AWS CloudFormation. Under the hood, the CloudFormation template provisions two clusters: one for getting started with EKS Auto Mode, and the second for demonstrating the migration patterns from HAQM EKS to EKS Auto Mode. To learn how to deploy the workshop environment with CloudFormation, refer to the instructions on how to get started in in your own AWS account.

How to navigate the workshop?

When your workshop environment is deployed, the instructions are completed through CLI commands. For every command in the workshop, you can left-click anywhere in the instruction to copy the command, or choose the clipboard icon in the top right corner to copy all commands, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 1: An example command from the workshop

Figure 1: An example command from the workshop

To reduce the amount of set up time to start working through the workshop, a Visual Studio Code Server IDE is provisioned on HAQM Elastic Compute (HAQM EC2) that comes preloaded with all the binaries and the configuration you need for the workshop. This includes CLI tools such as kubectl, aws, eksctl, and more. Instructions for how to access the IDE can be seen in this getting started guide.

Cleaning up resources

You should clean up the resources you provisioned when you’ve finished with the workshop. Instructions to clean up the resources can be found at the end of the workshop.

Conclusion

The HAQM EKS Auto Mode Workshop allows users to get hands-on knowledge of how to use the new EKS Auto Mode operating model. Get started today with the self-guided experience by deploying the workshop environment, then follow the step-by-step instructions in the workshop modules.

To participate in an AWS hosted version of the EKS Auto Mode workshop, register for a date and time that works for you.

You can also try EKS Auto Mode in the HAQM EKS console, or check out the docs in the HAQM EKS User Guide.

Contributors

The authors would like to thank the following people for their invaluable help in developing this new workshop for HAQM EKS Auto Mode:

Ahmed Azzam, Alexander Pinsker, Borja Perez Guasch, Chakkree Tipsupa, Dmitry Nutels, Erez Zarum, Estefany Kuong Montalvan, Karan Thanvi, Mike Rizzo, Niall Thomson, Raymond Zhou, Robert Northard, Sai Vennam, Sebastien Allamand, Sheetal Joshi, Tsahi Duek and Vicky Whittingham.