Installing the AWS Load Balancer Controller add-on - Amazon EKS

Installing the AWS Load Balancer Controller add-on

The AWS Load Balancer Controller manages AWS Elastic Load Balancers for a Kubernetes cluster. The controller provisions the following resources:

  • An AWS Application Load Balancer (ALB) when you create a Kubernetes Ingress.

  • An AWS Network Load Balancer (NLB) when you create a Kubernetes service of type LoadBalancer. In the past, the Kubernetes network load balancer was used for instance targets, but the AWS Load balancer Controller was used for IP targets. With the AWS Load Balancer Controller version 2.3.0 or later, you can create NLBs using either target type. For more information about NLB target types, see Target type in the User Guide for Network Load Balancers.

The AWS Load Balancer Controller was formerly named the AWS ALB Ingress Controller. It's an open-source project managed on GitHub. This topic describes how to install the controller using default options. You can view the full documentation for the controller on GitHub. Before deploying the controller, we recommend that you review the prerequisites and considerations in Application load balancing on Amazon EKS and Network load balancing on Amazon EKS. Those topics also include steps on how to deploy a sample application that require the AWS Load Balancer Controller to provision AWS Application Load Balancers and Network Load Balancers.

Prerequisites
To deploy the AWS Load Balancer Controller to an Amazon EKS cluster

In the following steps, replace the example values with your own values.

  1. Create an IAM policy.

    1. Download an IAM policy for the AWS Load Balancer Controller that allows it to make calls to AWS APIs on your behalf.

      • AWS GovCloud (US-East) or AWS GovCloud (US-West) AWS Regions

        curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.4.4/docs/install/iam_policy_us-gov.json

      • All other AWS Regions

        curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.4.4/docs/install/iam_policy.json

    2. Create an IAM policy using the policy downloaded in the previous step. If you downloaded iam_policy_us-gov.json, change iam_policy.json to iam_policy_us-gov.json before running the command.

      aws iam create-policy \
    --policy-name AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy \
    --policy-document file://iam_policy.json
      Note

      If you view the policy in the AWS Management Console, the console shows warnings for the ELB service, but not for the ELB v2 service. This happens because some of the actions in the policy exist for ELB v2, but not for ELB. You can ignore the warnings for ELB.

  2. Create an IAM role. Create a Kubernetes service account named aws-load-balancer-controller in the kube-system namespace for the AWS Load Balancer Controller and annotate the Kubernetes service account with the name of the IAM role.

    You can use eksctl or the AWS CLI and kubectl to create the IAM role and Kubernetes service account.

    eksctl

    Replace my-cluster with the name of your cluster, 111122223333 with your account ID, and then run the command. If your cluster is in the AWS GovCloud (US-East) or AWS GovCloud (US-West) AWS Regions, then replace arn:aws: with arn:aws-us-gov:.

    eksctl create iamserviceaccount \
  --cluster=my-cluster \
  --namespace=kube-system \
  --name=aws-load-balancer-controller \
  --role-name AmazonEKSLoadBalancerControllerRole \
  --attach-policy-arn=arn:aws:iam::111122223333:policy/AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy \
  --approve
    AWS CLI and kubectl

    Using the AWS CLI and kubectl

    1. Retrieve your cluster's OIDC provider ID and store it in a variable.

      oidc_id=$(aws eks describe-cluster --name my-cluster --query "cluster.identity.oidc.issuer" --output text | cut -d '/' -f 5)

    2. Determine whether an IAM OIDC provider with your cluster's ID is already in your account.

      aws iam list-open-id-connect-providers | grep $oidc_id | cut -d "/" -f4

      If output is returned, then you already have an IAM OIDC provider for your cluster. If no output is returned, then you must create an IAM OIDC provider for your cluster. For more information, see Creating an IAM OIDC provider for your cluster.

    3. Copy the following contents to your device. Replace 111122223333 with your account ID. Replace region-code with the AWS Region that your cluster is in.. Replace EXAMPLED539D4633E53DE1B71EXAMPLE with the output returned in the previous step. If your cluster is in the AWS GovCloud (US-East) or AWS GovCloud (US-West) AWS Regions, then replace arn:aws: with arn:aws-us-gov:. After replacing the text, run the modified command to create the load-balancer-role-trust-policy.json file.

      cat >load-balancer-role-trust-policy.json <<EOF
{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": {
                "Federated": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:oidc-provider/oidc.eks.region-code.amazonaws.com/id/EXAMPLED539D4633E53DE1B71EXAMPLE"
            },
            "Action": "sts:AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity",
            "Condition": {
                "StringEquals": {
                    "oidc.eks.region-code.amazonaws.com/id/EXAMPLED539D4633E53DE1B71EXAMPLE:aud": "sts.amazonaws.com",
                    "oidc.eks.region-code.amazonaws.com/id/EXAMPLED539D4633E53DE1B71EXAMPLE:sub": "system:serviceaccount:kube-system:aws-load-balancer-controller"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}
EOF

    4. Create the IAM role.

      aws iam create-role \
  --role-name AmazonEKSLoadBalancerControllerRole \
  --assume-role-policy-document file://"load-balancer-role-trust-policy.json"

    5. Attach the required Amazon EKS managed IAM policy to the IAM role. Replace 111122223333 with your account ID.

      aws iam attach-role-policy \
  --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::111122223333:policy/AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy \
  --role-name AmazonEKSLoadBalancerControllerRole

    6. Copy the following contents to your device. Replace 111122223333 with your account ID. If your cluster is in the AWS GovCloud (US-East) or AWS GovCloud (US-West) AWS Regions, then replace arn:aws: with arn:aws-us-gov:. After replacing the text, run the modified command to create the aws-load-balancer-controller-service-account.yaml file.

      cat >aws-load-balancer-controller-service-account.yaml <<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/component: controller
    app.kubernetes.io/name: aws-load-balancer-controller
  name: aws-load-balancer-controller
  namespace: kube-system
  annotations:
    eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn: arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/AmazonEKSLoadBalancerControllerRole
EOF

    7. Create the Kubernetes service account on your cluster. The Kubernetes service account named aws-load-balancer-controller is annotated with the IAM role that you created named AmazonEKSLoadBalancerControllerRole.

      kubectl apply -f aws-load-balancer-controller-service-account.yaml

  3. (Optional) Configure the AWS Security Token Service endpoint type used by your Kubernetes service account. For more information, see Configuring the AWS Security Token Service endpoint for a service account.

  4. If you don't currently have the AWS ALB Ingress Controller for Kubernetes installed, or don't currently have the 0.1.x version of the AWS Load Balancer Controller installed with Helm, then skip to the next step.

    Uninstall the AWS ALB Ingress Controller or 0.1.x version of the AWS Load Balancer Controller (only if installed with Helm). Complete the procedure using the tool that you originally installed it with. The AWS Load Balancer Controller replaces the functionality of the AWS ALB Ingress Controller for Kubernetes.

    Helm

    1. If you installed the incubator/aws-alb-ingress-controller Helm chart, uninstall it.

      helm delete aws-alb-ingress-controller -n kube-system

    2. If you have version 0.1.x of the eks-charts/aws-load-balancer-controller chart installed, uninstall it. The upgrade from 0.1.x to version 1.0.0 doesn't work due to incompatibility with the webhook API version. 

      helm delete aws-load-balancer-controller -n kube-system
    Kubernetes manifest

    1. Check to see if the controller is currently installed.

      kubectl get deployment -n kube-system alb-ingress-controller

      This is the output if the controller isn't installed. Skip to the install controller step.

      Error from server (NotFound): deployments.apps "alb-ingress-controller" not found

      This is the output if the controller is installed.

      NAME                   READY UP-TO-DATE AVAILABLE AGE
alb-ingress-controller 1/1   1          1         122d

    2. Enter the following commands to remove the controller.

      kubectl delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-alb-ingress-controller/v1.1.8/docs/examples/alb-ingress-controller.yaml
kubectl delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-alb-ingress-controller/v1.1.8/docs/examples/rbac-role.yaml

    3. Add the following IAM policy to the IAM role created in a previous step. The policy allows the AWS Load Balancer Controller access to the resources that were created by the ALB Ingress Controller for Kubernetes.

      1. Download the IAM policy. You can also view the policy.

        curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.4.4/docs/install/iam_policy_v1_to_v2_additional.json

      2. If your cluster is in the AWS GovCloud (US-East) or AWS GovCloud (US-West) AWS Regions, then replace arn:aws: with arn:aws-us-gov:..

        sed -i.bak -e 's|arn:aws:|arn:aws-us-gov:|' iam_policy_v1_to_v2_additional.json

      3. Create the IAM policy and note the ARN that is returned.

        aws iam create-policy \
  --policy-name AWSLoadBalancerControllerAdditionalIAMPolicy \
  --policy-document file://iam_policy_v1_to_v2_additional.json

      4. Attach the IAM policy to the IAM role that you created in a previous step. Replace your-role-name with the name of the role. If you created the role using eksctl, then to find the role name that was created, open the AWS CloudFormation console and select the eksctl-my-cluster-addon-iamserviceaccount-kube-system-aws-load-balancer-controller stack. Select the Resources tab. The role name is in the Physical ID column. If you used the AWS Management Console to create the role, then the role name is whatever you named it, such as AmazonEKSLoadBalancerControllerRole. If your cluster is in the AWS GovCloud (US-East) or AWS GovCloud (US-West) AWS Regions, then replace arn:aws: with arn:aws-us-gov:.

        aws iam attach-role-policy \
  --role-name your-role-name \
  --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::111122223333:policy/AWSLoadBalancerControllerAdditionalIAMPolicy
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  5. Install the AWS Load Balancer Controller using Helm V3 or later or by applying a Kubernetes manifest. If you want to deploy the controller on Fargate, use the Helm procedure. The Helm procedure doesn't depend on cert-manager because it generates a self-signed certificate.

    Helm

    1. Add the eks-charts repository.

      helm repo add eks https://aws.github.io/eks-charts

    2. Update your local repo to make sure that you have the most recent charts.

      helm repo update

    3. If your nodes don't have access to Amazon EKS Amazon ECR image repositories, then you need to pull the following container image and push it to a repository that your nodes have access to. For more information on how to pull, tag, and push an image to your own repository, see Copy a container image from one repository to another repository. Replace 602401143452 and region-code with the values for your AWS Region listed in Amazon container image registries.

      602401143452.dkr.ecr.region-code.amazonaws.com/amazon/aws-load-balancer-controller:v2.4.4

    4. Install the AWS Load Balancer Controller. If you're deploying the controller to Amazon EC2 nodes that have restricted access to the Amazon EC2 instance metadata service (IMDS), or if you're deploying to Fargate, then add the following flags to the helm command that follows:

      • --set region=region-code

      • --set vpcId=vpc-xxxxxxxx

      If you're deploying to any AWS Region other than us-west-2, then add the following flag to the helm command, replacing 602401143452 and region-code with the values for your AWS Region listed in Amazon container image registries. If you pulled the image and pushed it to your own repository, then replace the full registry and repository with your own.

      --set image.repository=602401143452.dkr.ecr.region-code.amazonaws.com/amazon/aws-load-balancer-controller

      Replace my-cluster with your own. In the following command, aws-load-balancer-controller is the Kubernetes service account that you created in a previous step.

      helm install aws-load-balancer-controller eks/aws-load-balancer-controller \
  -n kube-system \
  --set clusterName=my-cluster \
  --set serviceAccount.create=false \
  --set serviceAccount.name=aws-load-balancer-controller
      Important

      The deployed chart doesn't receive security updates automatically. You need to manually upgrade to a newer chart when it becomes available. When upgrading, change install to upgrade in the previous command, but run the following command to install the TargetGroupBinding custom resource definitions before running the previous command.

      kubectl apply -k "github.com/aws/eks-charts/stable/aws-load-balancer-controller/crds?ref=master"
    Kubernetes manifest

    1. Install cert-manager using one of the following methods to inject certificate configuration into the webhooks.

      • If your nodes have access to the quay.io container registry, install cert-manager to inject certificate configuration into the webhooks. 

        kubectl apply \
    --validate=false \
    -f https://github.com/jetstack/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.5.4/cert-manager.yaml

      • If your nodes don't have access to the quay.io container registry, then complete the following tasks:

        1. Download the manifest.

          curl -Lo cert-manager.yaml https://github.com/jetstack/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.5.4/cert-manager.yaml

        2. Pull the following images and push them to a repository that your nodes have access to. For more information on how to pull, tag, and push the images to your own repository, see Copy a container image from one repository to another repository.

          quay.io/jetstack/cert-manager-cainjector:v1.5.4
quay.io/jetstack/cert-manager-controller:v1.5.4
quay.io/jetstack/cert-manager-webhook:v1.5.4

        3. Replace quay.io in the manifest for the three images with your own registry name. The following command assumes that your private repository's name is the same as the source repository. Replace 111122223333.dkr.ecr.region-code.amazonaws.com with your private registry.

          sed -i.bak -e 's|quay.io|111122223333.dkr.ecr.region-code.amazonaws.com|' ./cert-manager.yaml

        4. Apply the manifest.

          kubectl apply \
    --validate=false \
    -f ./cert-manager.yaml
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    2. Install the controller.

      1. Download the controller specification. For more information about the controller, see the documentation on GitHub.

        curl -Lo v2_4_4_full.yaml https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/releases/download/v2.4.4/v2_4_4_full.yaml

      2. Make the following edits to the file.

        • If you downloaded the v2_4_4_full.yaml file, run the following command to remove the ServiceAccount section in the manifest. If you don't remove this section, the required annotation that you made to the service account in a previous step is overwritten. Removing this section also preserves the service account that you created in a previous step if you delete the controller.

          sed -i.bak -e '480,488d' ./v2_4_4_full.yaml

          If you downloaded a different file version, then open the file in an editor and remove the following lines. 

          apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/component: controller
    app.kubernetes.io/name: aws-load-balancer-controller
  name: aws-load-balancer-controller
  namespace: kube-system
---

        • Replace your-cluster-name in the Deployment spec section of the file with the name of your cluster by replacing my-cluster with the name of your cluster.

          sed -i.bak -e 's|your-cluster-name|my-cluster|' ./v2_4_4_full.yaml

        • If your nodes don't have access to the Amazon EKS Amazon ECR image repositories, then you need to pull the following image and push it to a repository that your nodes have access to. For more information on how to pull, tag, and push an image to your own repository, see Copy a container image from one repository to another repository.

          amazon/aws-alb-ingress-controller:v2.4.4

          Add your registry's name to the manifest. The following command assumes that your private repository's name is the same as the source repository and adds your private registry's name to the file. In the source file there is no registry specified because Kubernetes pulls from docker.io, by default. Replace 111122223333.dkr.ecr.region-code.amazonaws.com with your registry. This line assumes that you named your private repository the same as the source repository. If not, change the amazon/aws-alb-ingress-controller text after your private registry name to your repository name.

          sed -i.bak -e 's|amazon/aws-alb-ingress-controller|111122223333.dkr.ecr.region-code.amazonaws.com/amazon/aws-alb-ingress-controller|' ./v2_4_4_full.yaml
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        • If you're deploying the controller to Amazon EC2 nodes that have restricted access to the Amazon EC2 instance metadata service (IMDS), or if you're deploying to Fargate, then add the following parameters under - args:.

          ...
spec:
      containers:
        - args:
            - --cluster-name=your-cluster-name
            - --ingress-class=alb
            - --aws-vpc-id=vpc-xxxxxxxx
            - --aws-region=region-code
            
            
...

      3. Apply the file.

        kubectl apply -f v2_4_4_full.yaml

      4. Download the IngressClass and IngressClassParams manifest to your cluster.

        curl -Lo v2_4_4_ingclass.yaml https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/releases/download/v2.4.4/v2_4_4_ingclass.yaml

      5. Apply the manifest to your cluster.

        kubectl apply -f v2_4_4_ingclass.yaml

  6. Verify that the controller is installed.

    kubectl get deployment -n kube-system aws-load-balancer-controller

    The example output is as follows.

    NAME                           READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
aws-load-balancer-controller   2/2     2            2           84s

    You receive the previous output if you deployed using Helm. If you deployed using the Kubernetes manifest, you only have one replica.

  7. Before using the controller to provision AWS resources, your cluster must meet specific requirements. For more information, see Application load balancing on Amazon EKS and Network load balancing on Amazon EKS.