Amazon EKS cluster IAM role

An Amazon EKS cluster IAM role is required for each cluster. Kubernetes clusters managed by Amazon EKS use this role to manage nodes and the legacy Cloud Provider uses this role to create load balancers with Elastic Load Balancing for services.

Before you can create Amazon EKS clusters, you must create an IAM role with either of the following IAM policies:

• AmazonEKSClusterPolicy

• A custom IAM policy. The minimal permissions that follow allows the Kubernetes cluster to manage nodes, but doesn’t allow the legacy Cloud Provider to create load balancers with Elastic Load Balancing. Your custom IAM policy must have at least the following permissions:

  {
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Action": [
          "ec2:CreateTags"
        ],
        "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:instance/",
        "Condition": {
          "ForAnyValue:StringLike": {
            "aws:TagKeys": "kubernetes.io/cluster/"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Action": [
          "ec2:DescribeInstances",
          "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces",
          "ec2:DescribeVpcs",
          "ec2:DescribeDhcpOptions",
          "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",
          "ec2:DescribeInstanceTopology",
          "kms:DescribeKey"
        ],
        "Resource": "*"
      }
    ]
  }

Note

Prior to October 3, 2023, AmazonEKSClusterPolicy was required on the IAM role for each cluster.

Prior to April 16, 2020, AmazonEKSServicePolicy and AmazonEKSClusterPolicy was required and the suggested name for the role was eksServiceRole. With the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKS service-linked role, the AmazonEKSServicePolicy policy is no longer required for clusters created on or after April 16, 2020.

Check for an existing cluster role

You can use the following procedure to check and see if your account already has the Amazon EKS cluster role.

1. Open the IAM console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/.

2. In the left navigation pane, choose Roles.

3. Search the list of roles for eksClusterRole. If a role that includes eksClusterRole doesn’t exist, then see Creating the Amazon EKS cluster role to create the role. If a role that includes eksClusterRole does exist, then select the role to view the attached policies.

4. Choose Permissions.

5. Ensure that the AmazonEKSClusterPolicy managed policy is attached to the role. If the policy is attached, your Amazon EKS cluster role is properly configured.

6. Choose Trust relationships, and then choose Edit trust policy.

7. Verify that the trust relationship contains the following policy. If the trust relationship matches the following policy, choose Cancel. If the trust relationship doesn’t match, copy the policy into the Edit trust policy window and choose Update policy.

   {
     "Version": "2012-10-17",
     "Statement": [
       {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Principal": {
           "Service": "eks.amazonaws.com"
         },
         "Action": "sts:AssumeRole"
       }
     ]
   }

Creating the Amazon EKS cluster role

You can use the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI to create the cluster role.

AWS Management Console

1. Open the IAM console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/.

2. Choose Roles, then Create role.

3. Under Trusted entity type, select AWS service.

4. From the Use cases for other AWS services dropdown list, choose EKS.

5. Choose EKS - Cluster for your use case, and then choose Next.

6. On the Add permissions tab, choose Next.

7. For Role name, enter a unique name for your role, such as eksClusterRole.

8. For Description, enter descriptive text such as Amazon EKS - Cluster role.

9. Choose Create role.

AWS CLI

1. Copy the following contents to a file named cluster-trust-policy.json.

   {
     "Version": "2012-10-17",
     "Statement": [
       {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Principal": {
           "Service": "eks.amazonaws.com"
         },
         "Action": "sts:AssumeRole"
       }
     ]
   }

2. Create the role. You can replace eksClusterRole with any name that you choose.

   aws iam create-role \
     --role-name eksClusterRole \
     --assume-role-policy-document file://"cluster-trust-policy.json"

3. Attach the required IAM policy to the role.

   aws iam attach-role-policy \
     --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEKSClusterPolicy \
     --role-name eksClusterRole