Default add-on updates - Eksctl User Guide
Update pre-installed add-on

Default add-on updates

This topic explains how to update the default pre-installed add-ons that are included on EKS clusters.

Warning

eksctl now installs default addons as EKS addons instead of self-managed addons. Read more about its implications in Cluster creation flexibility for default networking addons.

For updating addons, eksctl utils update-<addon> cannot be used for clusters created with eksctl v0.184.0 and above. This guide is only valid for clusters created before this change.

There are 3 default add-ons that get included in each EKS cluster:

  • kube-proxy

  • aws-node

  • coredns

Update pre-installed add-on

For official EKS addons that are created manually through eksctl create addons or upon cluster creation, the way to manage them is through eksctl create/get/update/delete addon. In such cases, please refer to the docs about EKS Add-Ons.

The process for updating each of them is different, hence there are 3 distinct commands that you will need to run. All of the following commands accept --config-file. By default each of these commands runs in plan mode, if you are happy with the proposed changes, re-run with --approve.

To update kube-proxy, run:

eksctl utils update-kube-proxy --cluster=<clusterName>

To update aws-node, run:

eksctl utils update-aws-node --cluster=<clusterName>

To update coredns, run:

eksctl utils update-coredns --cluster=<clusterName>

Once upgraded, be sure to run kubectl get pods -n kube-system and check if all addon pods are in ready state, you should see something like this:

NAME                       READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
aws-node-g5ghn             1/1     Running   0          2m
aws-node-zfc9s             1/1     Running   0          2m
coredns-7bcbfc4774-g6gg8   1/1     Running   0          1m
coredns-7bcbfc4774-hftng   1/1     Running   0          1m
kube-proxy-djkp7           1/1     Running   0          3m
kube-proxy-mpdsp           1/1     Running   0          3m