Creating or updating a kubeconfig file for an Amazon EKS cluster - Amazon EKS

Creating or updating a kubeconfig file for an Amazon EKS cluster

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

The kubectl command-line tool uses configuration information in kubeconfig files to communicate with the API server of a cluster. For more information, see Organizing Cluster Access Using kubeconfig Files in the Kubernetes documentation. This topic provides two procedures to create or update a kubeconfig file for your Amazon EKS cluster:

  • Creating it automatically with the AWS CLI update-kubeconfig command.

  • Creating it manually using the AWS CLI or the aws-iam-authenticator.

Amazon EKS uses the aws eks get-token command, available in version 1.16.156 or later 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 uses the same credentials that are returned with the following command:

aws sts get-caller-identity
Prerequisites
  • An existing Amazon EKS cluster. To deploy one, see Getting started with Amazon EKS.

  • The kubectl command line tool is installed on your device or AWS CloudShell. The version can be the same as or up to one minor version earlier or later than the Kubernetes version of your cluster. For example, if your cluster version is 1.27, you can use kubectl version 1.26, 1.27, or 1.28 with it. To install or upgrade kubectl, see Installing or updating kubectl.

Create kubeconfig file automatically

Prerequisites
  • Version 2.12.3 or later or version 1.27.160 or later of the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) installed and configured on your device or AWS CloudShell. To check your current version, use aws --version | cut -d / -f2 | cut -d ' ' -f1. Package managers such yum, apt-get, or Homebrew for macOS are often several versions behind the latest version of the AWS CLI. To install the latest version, see Installing, updating, and uninstalling the AWS CLI and Quick configuration with aws configure in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide. The AWS CLI version that is installed in AWS CloudShell might also be several versions behind the latest version. To update it, see Installing AWS CLI to your home directory in the AWS CloudShell User Guide.

  • Permission to use the eks:DescribeCluster API action for the cluster that you specify. For more information, see Amazon EKS identity-based policy examples.

To create your kubeconfig file with the AWS CLI
  1. Create or update a kubeconfig file for your cluster. Replace region-code with the AWS Region that your cluster is in and replace my-cluster with the name of your cluster.

    aws eks update-kubeconfig --region region-code --name my-cluster

    By default, the resulting configuration file is created at the default kubeconfig path (.kube) in your home directory or merged with an existing config file 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 principal 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 all available options, run the aws eks update-kubeconfig help command or see update-kubeconfig in the AWS CLI Command Reference.

  2. Test your configuration.

    kubectl get svc

    An example output is as follows.

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

    If you receive any authorization or resource type errors, see Unauthorized or access denied (kubectl) in the troubleshooting topic.

Create kubeconfig file manually

To create your kubeconfig file manually
  1. Set values for a few variables by replacing the example values with your own and then running the modified commands.

    export region_code=region-code export cluster_name=my-cluster export account_id=111122223333
  2. Retrieve the endpoint for your cluster and store the value in a variable.

    cluster_endpoint=$(aws eks describe-cluster \ --region $region_code \ --name $cluster_name \ --query "cluster.endpoint" \ --output text)
  3. Retrieve the Base64-encoded certificate data required to communicate with your cluster and store the value in a variable.

    certificate_data=$(aws eks describe-cluster \ --region $region_code \ --name $cluster_name \ --query "cluster.certificateAuthority.data" \ --output text)
  4. Create the default ~/.kube directory if it doesn't already exist.

    mkdir -p ~/.kube
  5. Run one of the following commands for your preferred client token method (AWS CLI or AWS IAM authenticator for Kubernetes) to create the config file in the ~/.kube directory. You can specify the following before running one of the commands by modifying the command to include the following:

    AWS CLI
    Prerequisite

    Version 2.12.3 or later or version 1.27.160 or later of the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) installed and configured on your device or AWS CloudShell. To check your current version, use aws --version | cut -d / -f2 | cut -d ' ' -f1. Package managers such yum, apt-get, or Homebrew for macOS are often several versions behind the latest version of the AWS CLI. To install the latest version, see Installing, updating, and uninstalling the AWS CLI and Quick configuration with aws configure in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide. The AWS CLI version that is installed in AWS CloudShell might also be several versions behind the latest version. To update it, see Installing AWS CLI to your home directory in the AWS CloudShell User Guide.

    #!/bin/bash read -r -d '' KUBECONFIG <<EOF apiVersion: v1 clusters: - cluster: certificate-authority-data: $certificate_data server: $cluster_endpoint name: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name contexts: - context: cluster: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name user: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name name: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name current-context: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name kind: Config preferences: {} users: - name: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name user: exec: apiVersion: client.authentication.k8s.io/v1beta1 command: aws args: - --region - $region_code - eks - get-token - --cluster-name - $cluster_name # - --role # - "arn:aws:iam::$account_id:role/my-role" # env: # - name: "AWS_PROFILE" # value: "aws-profile" EOF echo "${KUBECONFIG}" > ~/.kube/config
    AWS IAM Authenticator for Kubernetes
    Prerequisite

    Version 0.6.11 or later of the AWS IAM Authenticator for Kubernetes installed on your device. To install it, see Installing aws-iam-authenticator.

    #!/bin/bash read -r -d '' KUBECONFIG <<EOF apiVersion: v1 clusters: - cluster: server: $cluster_endpoint certificate-authority-data: $certificate_data name: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name contexts: - context: cluster: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name user: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name name: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name current-context: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name kind: Config preferences: {} users: - name: arn:aws:eks:$region_code:$account_id:cluster/$cluster_name user: exec: apiVersion: client.authentication.k8s.io/v1beta1 command: aws-iam-authenticator args: - "token" - "-i" - "$cluster_name" # - "--role" # - "arn:aws:iam::$account_id:role/my-role" # env: # - name: "AWS_PROFILE" # value: "aws-profile" EOF echo "${KUBECONFIG}" > ~/.kube/config
  6. Add the file path to your KUBECONFIG environment variable so that kubectl knows where to look for your cluster configuration.

    • For Bash shells on macOS or Linux:

      export KUBECONFIG=$KUBECONFIG:~/.kube/config
    • For PowerShell on Windows:

      $ENV:KUBECONFIG="{0};{1}" -f $ENV:KUBECONFIG, "$ENV:userprofile\.kube\config"
  7. (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' >> ~/.bash_profile
    • For Bash shells on Linux:

      echo 'export KUBECONFIG=$KUBECONFIG:~/.kube/config' >> ~/.bashrc
    • For PowerShell on Windows:

      [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('KUBECONFIG', $ENV:KUBECONFIG, 'Machine')
  8. Test your configuration.

    kubectl get svc

    An example output is as follows.

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

    If you receive any authorization or resource type errors, see Unauthorized or access denied (kubectl) in the troubleshooting topic.