Deleting a managed node group

This topic describes how you can delete an Amazon EKS managed node group. When you delete a managed node group, Amazon EKS first sets the minimum, maximum, and desired size of your Auto Scaling group to zero. This then causes your node group to scale down.

Before each instance is terminated, Amazon EKS sends a signal to drain the Pods from that node. If the Pods haven't drained after a few minutes, Amazon EKS lets Auto Scaling continue the termination of the instance. After every instance is terminated, the Auto Scaling group is deleted.

Important

If you delete a managed node group that uses a node IAM role that isn't used by any other managed node group in the cluster, the role is removed from the aws-auth ConfigMap. If any of the self-managed node groups in the cluster are using the same node IAM role, the self-managed nodes move to the NotReady status. Additionally, the cluster operation is also disrupted. To add a mapping for the role you're using only for the self-managed node groups, see Creating access entries, if your cluster's platform version is at least minimum version listed in the prerequisites section of Manage access entries. If your platform version is earlier than the required minimum version for access entries, you can add the entry back to the aws-auth ConfigMap. For more information, enter eksctl create iamidentitymapping --help in your terminal.

You can delete a managed node group with eksctl or the AWS Management Console.

eksctl

To delete a managed node group with eksctl

Enter the following command. Replace every example value with your own values.

eksctl delete nodegroup \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --name my-mng \
  --region region-code

For more options, see Deleting and draining nodegroups in the eksctl documentation.

AWS Management Console

To delete your managed node group with the AWS Management Console

1. Open the Amazon EKS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/eks/home#/clusters.

2. On the Clusters page, choose the cluster that contains the node group to delete.

3. On the selected cluster page, choose the Compute tab.

4. In the Node groups section, choose the node group to delete. Then choose Delete.

5. In the Delete node group confirmation dialog box, enter the name of the node group. Then choose Delete.

AWS CLI

To delete your managed node group with the AWS CLI

1. Enter the following command. Replace every example value with your own values.

   aws eks delete-nodegroup \
     --cluster-name my-cluster \
     --nodegroup-name my-mng \
     --region region-code
   

2. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through the response output. Press the q key when you're finished.

For more options, see the delete-nodegroup command in the AWS CLI Command Reference.