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Community add-ons

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Community add-ons - Amazon EKS

Help improve this page

To contribute to this user guide, choose the Edit this page on GitHub link that is located in the right pane of every page.

Help improve this page

To contribute to this user guide, choose the Edit this page on GitHub link that is located in the right pane of every page.

You can use AWS APIs to install community add-ons, such as the Kubernetes Metrics Server. You may choose to install community add-ons as Amazon EKS Add-ons to reduce the complexity of maintaining the software on multiple clusters.

For example, you can use the AWS API, CLI, or Management Console to install community add-ons. You can install a community add-on during cluster creation.

You manage community add-ons just like existing Amazon EKS Add-ons. Community add-ons are different from existing add-ons in that they have a unique scope of support.

Note

Using community add-ons is at your discretion. As part of the shared responsibility model between you and AWS, you are expected to understand what you are installing into your workspace for these third party plugins. You are also responsible for the community add-ons meeting your security needs.

Community add-ons are built by AWS. AWS only validates community add-ons for version compatibility. For example, if you install a community add-on on a cluster, AWS checks if it is compatible with the Kubernetes version of your cluster.

Importantly, AWS does not provide full support for community add-ons. AWS supports only lifecycle operations done using AWS APIs, such as installing add-ons or deleting add-ons.

If you require support for a community add-on, utilize the existing project resources. For example, you may create a GitHub issue on the repo for the project.

Determine add-on type

You can use the AWS CLI to determine the type of an Amazon EKS Add-on.

Use the following CLI command to retrieve information about an add-on. You can replace metrics-server with the name of any add-on.

aws eks describe-addon-versions --addon-name metrics-server

Review the CLI output for the owner field.

{
    "addons": [
        {
            "addonName": "metrics-server",
            "type": "observability",
            "owner": "community",
            "addonVersions": [

If the value of owner is community, then the add-on is a community add-on. AWS only provides support for installing, updating, and removing the add-on. If you have questions about the functionality and operation of the add-on itself, use community resources like GitHub issues.

Install or update community add-on

You install or update community add-ons in the same way as other Amazon EKS Add-ons.

Available community add-ons

The following community add-ons are availalbe from Amazon EKS.

Kubernetes Metrics Server

The Kubernetes Metrics Server is a scalable and efficient source of container resource metrics for Kubernetes built-in autoscaling pipelines. It collects resource metrics from Kubelets and exposes them in Kubernetes apiserver through Metrics API for use by Horizontal Pod Autoscaler and Vertical Pod Autoscaler.

Property Value

Add-on name

metrics-server

Namespace

kube-system

Documentation

GitHub Readme

Service account name

None

Managed IAM policy

None

Custom IAM permissions

None

kube-state-metrics

Add-on agent to generate and expose cluster-level metrics.

The state of Kubernetes objects in the Kubernetes API can be exposed as metrics. An add-on agent called kube-state-metrics can connect to the Kubernetes API server and expose a HTTP endpoint with metrics generated from the state of individual objects in the cluster. It exposes various information about the state of objects like labels and annotations, startup and termination times, status or the phase the object currently is in.

Property Value

Add-on name

kube-state-metrics

Namespace

kube-state-metrics

Documentation

Metrics for Kubernetes Object States in Kubernetes Docs

Service account name

None

Managed IAM policy

None

Custom IAM permissions

None

Prometheus Node exporter

Prometheus exporter for hardware and OS metrics exposed by *NIX kernels, written in Go with pluggable metric collectors. The Prometheus Node Exporter exposes a wide variety of hardware- and kernel-related metrics.

Property Value

Add-on name

node_exporter

Namespace

prometheus-node-exporter

Documentation

Monitoring Linux host metrics with the Node Exporter in Prometheus Docs

Service account name

None

Managed IAM policy

None

Custom IAM permissions

None

View Attributions

You can download the open source attribtions and license information for community add-ons.

  1. Determine the name and version of the add-on you want to download attributions for.

  2. Update the following command with the name and version:

    curl -O https://amazon-eks-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/attributions/<add-on-name>/<add-on-version>/attributions.zip

    For example:

    curl -O https://amazon-eks-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/attributions/kube-state-metrics/v2.14.0-eksbuild.1/attributions.zip
  3. Use the command to download the file.

Use this zip file to view information about the license attributions.

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