AWS Documentation » Amazon EKS » User Guide » Managing Cluster Authentication » Create a kubeconfig for Amazon EKS

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Create a kubeconfig for Amazon EKS

In this section, you create a kubeconfig file for your cluster (or update an existing one).

This section offers two procedures to create or update your kubeconfig. You can quickly create or update a kubeconfig with the AWS CLI update-kubeconfig command by using the first procedure, or you can create a kubeconfig manually with the second procedure.

Amazon EKS uses the aws eks get-token command, available in version 1.16.232 or greater of the AWS CLI or the AWS IAM Authenticator for Kubernetes with kubectl for cluster authentication. If you have installed the AWS CLI on your system, then by default the AWS IAM Authenticator for Kubernetes will use the same credentials that are returned with the following command:

aws sts get-caller-identity

For more information, see Configuring the AWS CLI in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

To create your kubeconfig file with the AWS CLI

1. Ensure that you have at least version 1.16.232 of the AWS CLI installed. To install or upgrade the AWS CLI, see Installing the AWS Command Line Interface in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

   Note

   Your system's Python version must be 2.7.9 or greater. Otherwise, you receive hostname doesn't match errors with AWS CLI calls to Amazon EKS. For more information, see What are "hostname doesn't match" errors? in the Python Requests FAQ.

   You can check your AWS CLI version with the following command:

   aws --version

   Important

   Package managers such yum, apt-get, or Homebrew for macOS are often behind several versions of the AWS CLI. To ensure that you have the latest version, see Installing the AWS Command Line Interface in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

2. Use the AWS CLI update-kubeconfig command to create or update your kubeconfig for your cluster.

   • By default, the resulting configuration file is created at the default kubeconfig path (.kube/config) in your home directory or merged with an existing kubeconfig at that location. You can specify another path with the --kubeconfig option.

   • You can specify an IAM role ARN with the --role-arn option to use for authentication when you issue kubectl commands. Otherwise, the IAM entity in your default AWS CLI or SDK credential chain is used. You can view your default AWS CLI or SDK identity by running the aws sts get-caller-identity command.

   • For more information, see the help page with the aws eks update-kubeconfig help command or see update-kubeconfig in the AWS CLI Command Reference.

   aws eks --region region update-kubeconfig --name cluster_name

3. Test your configuration.

   kubectl get svc

   Note

   If you receive the error "aws-iam-authenticator": executable file not found in $PATH, your kubectl isn't configured for Amazon EKS. For more information, see Installing aws-iam-authenticator.

   If you receive any other authorization or resource type errors, see Unauthorized or Access Denied (kubectl) in the troubleshooting section.

   Output:

   NAME             TYPE        CLUSTER-IP   EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)   AGE
   svc/kubernetes   ClusterIP   10.100.0.1   <none>        443/TCP   1m

To create your kubeconfig file manually

1. Create the default ~/.kube directory if it does not already exist.

   mkdir -p ~/.kube

2. Open your favorite text editor and copy one of the kubeconfig code blocks below into it, depending on your preferred client token method.

   • To use the AWS CLI aws eks get-token command (requires at least version 1.16.232 of the AWS CLI):

     apiVersion: v1
     clusters:
     - cluster:
         server: <endpoint-url>
         certificate-authority-data: <base64-encoded-ca-cert>
       name: kubernetes
     contexts:
     - context:
         cluster: kubernetes
         user: aws
       name: aws
     current-context: aws
     kind: Config
     preferences: {}
     users:
     - name: aws
       user:
         exec:
           apiVersion: client.authentication.k8s.io/v1alpha1
           command: aws
           args:
             - "eks"
             - "get-token"
             - "--cluster-name"
             - "<cluster-name>"
             # - "--role"
             # - "<role-arn>"
           # env:
             # - name: AWS_PROFILE
             #   value: "<aws-profile>"

   • To use the AWS IAM Authenticator for Kubernetes:

     apiVersion: v1
     clusters:
     - cluster:
         server: <endpoint-url>
         certificate-authority-data: <base64-encoded-ca-cert>
       name: kubernetes
     contexts:
     - context:
         cluster: kubernetes
         user: aws
       name: aws
     current-context: aws
     kind: Config
     preferences: {}
     users:
     - name: aws
       user:
         exec:
           apiVersion: client.authentication.k8s.io/v1alpha1
           command: aws-iam-authenticator
           args:
             - "token"
             - "-i"
             - "<cluster-name>"
             # - "-r"
             # - "<role-arn>"
           # env:
             # - name: AWS_PROFILE
             #   value: "<aws-profile>"

3. Replace the <endpoint-url> with the endpoint URL that was created for your cluster.

4. Replace the <base64-encoded-ca-cert> with the certificateAuthority.data that was created for your cluster.

5. Replace the <cluster-name> with your cluster name.

6. (Optional) To assume an IAM role to perform cluster operations instead of the default AWS credential provider chain, uncomment the -r or --role and <role-arn> lines and substitute an IAM role ARN to use with your user.

7. (Optional) To always use a specific named AWS credential profile (instead of the default AWS credential provider chain), uncomment the env lines and substitute <aws-profile> with the profile name to use.

8. Save the file to the default kubectl folder, with your cluster name in the file name. For example, if your cluster name is devel, save the file to ~/.kube/config-devel.

9. Add that file path to your KUBECONFIG environment variable so that kubectl knows where to look for your cluster configuration.

   export KUBECONFIG=$KUBECONFIG:~/.kube/config-devel

10. (Optional) Add the configuration to your shell initialization file so that it is configured when you open a shell.

    • For Bash shells on macOS:

      echo 'export KUBECONFIG=$KUBECONFIG:~/.kube/config-devel' >> ~/.bash_profile

    • For Bash shells on Linux:

      echo 'export KUBECONFIG=$KUBECONFIG:~/.kube/config-devel' >> ~/.bashrc

    • For PowerShell on Windows:

      [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('KUBECONFIG', $KubeConfigFile, 'Machine')

11. Test your configuration.

    kubectl get svc

    Note

    If you receive the error "aws-iam-authenticator": executable file not found in $PATH, your kubectl isn't configured for Amazon EKS. For more information, see Installing aws-iam-authenticator.

    If you receive any other authorization or resource type errors, see Unauthorized or Access Denied (kubectl) in the troubleshooting section.

    Output:

    NAME             TYPE        CLUSTER-IP   EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)   AGE
    svc/kubernetes   ClusterIP   10.100.0.1   <none>        443/TCP   1m