ARM Support

This topic covers how to create a cluster with an ARM node group, and how to add an ARM node group to an existing cluster.

EKS supports 64-bit ARM architecture with its Graviton processors. To create a cluster, select one of the Graviton-based instance types (a1, t4g, m6g, m7g, m6gd, c6g, c7g, c6gd, r6g, r7g, r6gd, m8g, r8g, c8g) and run:

eksctl create cluster --node-type=a1.large

or use a config file:

---
apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
kind: ClusterConfig

metadata:
  name: cluster-arm-1
  region: us-west-2


nodeGroups:
  - name: ng-arm-1
    instanceType: m6g.medium
    desiredCapacity: 1

eksctl create cluster -f cluster-arm-1.yaml

ARM is also supported in managed nodegroups:

---
apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha5
kind: ClusterConfig

metadata:
  name: cluster-arm-2
  region: us-west-2

managedNodeGroups:
  - name: mng-arm-1
    instanceType: m6g.medium
    desiredCapacity: 1

eksctl create cluster -f cluster-arm-2.yaml

The AMI resolvers, auto and auto-ssm, will infer the correct AMI based on the ARM instance type. Only AmazonLinux2023, AmazonLinux2 and Bottlerocket families have EKS optimized AMIs for ARM.

Note

ARM is supported for clusters with version 1.15 and higher.