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Self-managed vs. Managed Nodegroups

Updated May 26, 2022 ·

Self-managed Nodegroups​

With self-managed nodegroups, the Kubernetes admin handles:

  • Installing kubelet and container runtime
  • Cluster connection
  • Autoscaling and networking

Typically, self-managed nodes are used for more customization, but most EKS clusters don’t require this level of control.

Example YAML for self-managed nodegroup using eksctl:

apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
kind: ClusterConfig
metadata:
    name: eksops-unmanaged
    region: ap-southeast-1
nodeGroups:
    - name: eksops-unmanaged
      instanceType: t3.micro
      minSize: 0
      maxSize: 5
      desiredCapacity: 3
      ssh: 
        publicKeyName: "k8s-kp"

To create the cluster:

time eksctl create cluster -f eksops.yml

Check the nodes:

kubectl get nodes

Output:

NAME                                                STATUS   ROLES    AGE   VERSION
ip-192-168-11-255.ap-southeast-1.compute.internal   Ready    <none>   55m   v1.24.13-eks-0a21954
ip-192-168-37-36.ap-southeast-1.compute.internal    Ready    <none>   55m   v1.24.13-eks-0a21954
ip-192-168-82-53.ap-southeast-1.compute.internal    Ready    <none>   55m   v1.24.13-eks-0a21954

From the AWS Management Console > Amazon EKS:

Managed Nodegroups​

Managed nodegroups simplify node management by handling:

  • Software installation and permissions
  • Cluster connection
  • Autoscaling and updates

AWS takes care of server management. You only specify instance types; patching is automated.

Example YAML for managed nodegroup using eksctl:

apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
kind: ClusterConfig
metadata:
    name: eksops-managed
    region: ap-southeast-1
managedNodeGroups:
    - name: eksops-managed
      instanceType: t2.micro
      minSize: 0
      maxSize: 5
      desiredCapacity: 3
      volumeSize: 10
      ssh:
        allow: true
        publicKeyPath: ~/.ssh/tst-kp-ubuntu.pub

To create the cluster:

time eksctl create cluster -f eksops-managed.yml

Check the nodes:

kubectl get nodes

Output:

NAME                                                STATUS   ROLES    AGE   VERSION
ip-192-168-11-255.ap-southeast-1.compute.internal   Ready    <none>   55m   v1.24.13-eks-0a21954
ip-192-168-37-36.ap-southeast-1.compute.internal    Ready    <none>   55m   v1.24.13-eks-0a21954
ip-192-168-82-53.ap-southeast-1.compute.internal    Ready    <none>   55m   v1.24.13-eks-0a21954

From the AWS Management Console > Amazon EKS:

Combining both​

You can create a cluster with both managed and self-managed nodegroups.

apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
kind: ClusterConfig
metadata:
    name: eksops-mixed
    region: ap-southeast-1
    version: "1.24"
nodeGroups:
    - name: eksops-unmanaged
      instanceType: t2.micro
      minSize: 0
      maxSize: 3
      desiredCapacity: 3
      ssh: 
        publicKeyName: "k8s-kp"
managedNodeGroups:
    - name: eksops-managed
      instanceType: t3.medium
      minSize: 0
      maxSize: 2
      desiredCapacity: 2
      volumeSize: 10
      ssh:
        allow: true
        publicKeyPath: ~/.ssh/tst-kp-ubuntu.pub

To create the cluster:

time eksctl create cluster -f eksops.yml

From the AWS Management Console > Amazon EKS:

Resources​