# Overview of eksctl > Basic instructions on how to use EKSCTL on the command line. - Canonical: https://dennisokeeffe.com/blog/2019-03-01-eksctl - Published: 2019-03-01 - Updated: 2019-03-01 https://eksctl.io/ ## tl;dr ### Clusters | Action | Command | | ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Get cluster | `eksctl get cluster [--name=] [--region=]` | | Create cluster | `eksctl create cluster --name=cluster-1 --nodes=4` | | Write kubeconfig | `eksctl utils write-kubeconfig --name= [--kubeconfig=] [--set-kubeconfig-context=]` | | Delete cluster | `eksctl delete cluster --name= [--region=]` | eksctl create cluster --name=cluster-3 --nodes=4 --auto-kubeconfig | Action | Flag | Example | | ------------------------- | ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------- | | Name the cluster | --name | eksctl create cluster --name=cluster-3 | | Set default node count | --nodes | eksctl create cluster --nodes=4 | | Auto configure kubectl | --auto-kubeconfig | eksctl create cluster --auto-kubeconfig | | Use an auth scaling group | --nodes-min, --nodes-max | eksctl create cluster --nodes-min=3 --nodes-max=5 | ### Node Groups | Action | Command | | ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Get nodegroup | `eksctl get nodegroup --cluster= [--name=]` | | Create nodegroup | `eksctl create nodegroup --cluster= [--name=]` | | Scale nodegroup | `eksctl scale nodegroup --cluster=cluster-1 --nodes=5 ng-a345f4e1` | | Delete nodegroup | `eksctl delete nodegroup --cluster= --nodes= --name=` | | SSH Access Flag | `--ssh-access` | | Full ECR Access | `--full-ecr-access` | | Enable autoscaling | `--asg-access` | Once clsuter is running, you'll need to add the autoscaler yourself. See https://github.com/kubernetes/autoscaler/blob/master/cluster-autoscaler/cloudprovider/aws/README.md. ### Creating a cluster using a config file instead of flags You can create a cluster using a config file instead of flags. First, create cluster.yaml file: ```yaml apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha3 kind: ClusterConfig metadata: name: basic-cluster region: eu-north-1 nodeGroups: - name: ng-1 instanceType: m5.large desiredCapacity: 10 ``` Next, run this command: ```shell eksctl create cluster -f cluster.yaml ``` This will create a cluster as described. If you needed to use an existing VPC, you can use a config file like this: ```yaml apiVersion: eksctl.io/v1alpha3 kind: ClusterConfig metadata: name: cluster-in-existing-vpc region: eu-north-1 vpc: subnets: private: eu-north-1a: { id: subnet-0ff156e0c4a6d300c } eu-north-1b: { id: subnet-0549cdab573695c03 } eu-north-1c: { id: subnet-0426fb4a607393184 } nodeGroups: - name: ng-1-workers labels: { role: workers } instanceType: m5.xlarge desiredCapacity: 10 privateNetworking: true - name: ng-2-builders labels: { role: builders } instanceType: m5.2xlarge desiredCapacity: 2 privateNetworking: true iam: withAddonPolicies: imageBuilder: true ``` See ![examples/](https://github.com/weaveworks/eksctl/tree/master/examples) directory for more sample config files. ## Usage To download the latest release, run: ```shell curl --silent --location "https://github.com/weaveworks/eksctl/releases/download/latest_release/eksctl_$(uname -s)_amd64.tar.gz" | tar xz -C /tmp sudo mv /tmp/eksctl /usr/local/bin ``` Alternatively, macOS users can use Homebrew: ```shell brew install weaveworks/tap/eksctl ``` You will need to have AWS API credentials configured. What works for AWS CLI or any other tools (kops, Terraform etc), should be sufficient. You can use `~/.aws/credentials` file or environment variables. For more information read AWS documentation. To create a basic cluster, run: ```shell eksctl create cluster ``` A cluster will be created with default parameters: - Exciting auto-generated name, e.g. "fabulous-mushroom-1527688624" - 2x m5.large nodes (this instance type suits most common use-cases, and is good value for money) - Use official AWS EKS AMI - `us-west-2` region - Dedicated VPC (check your quotas) - Using static AMI resolver ### Example output ```shell $ eksctl create cluster [ℹ] using region us-west-2 [ℹ] setting availability zones to [us-west-2c us-west-2a us-west-2b] [ℹ] subnets for us-west-2c - public:192.168.0.0/19 private:192.168.96.0/19 [ℹ] subnets for us-west-2a - public:192.168.32.0/19 private:192.168.128.0/19 [ℹ] subnets for us-west-2b - public:192.168.64.0/19 private:192.168.160.0/19 [ℹ] using "ami-0ce0ec06e682ee10e" for nodes [ℹ] creating EKS cluster "floral-unicorn-1540567338" in "us-west-2" region [ℹ] will create 2 separate CloudFormation stacks for cluster itself and the initial nodegroup [ℹ] if you encounter any issues, check CloudFormation console or try 'eksctl utils describe-stacks --region=us-west-2 --name=floral-unicorn-1540567338' [ℹ] creating cluster stack "eksctl-floral-unicorn-1540567338-cluster" [ℹ] creating nodegroup stack "eksctl-floral-unicorn-1540567338-nodegroup-ng-39d54824" [✔] all EKS cluster resource for "floral-unicorn-1540567338" had been created [✔] saved kubeconfig as "~/.kube/config" [ℹ] nodegroup "ng-39d54824" has 0 nodes [ℹ] waiting for at least 2 nodes to become ready [ℹ] nodegroup "ng-39d54824" has 2 nodes [ℹ] node "ip-192-168-71-20.us-west-2.compute.internal" is ready [ℹ] node "ip-192-168-25-215.us-west-2.compute.internal" is ready [ℹ] kubectl command should work with "~/.kube/config", try 'kubectl get nodes' [✔] EKS cluster "floral-unicorn-1540567338" in "us-west-2" region is ready $ ```