🎯 Learning Objectives

• Install and configure the eksctl CLI tool
• Create a fully functional EKS cluster with a single command
• Connect to the cluster using kubectl
• Understand Node Groups and Auto Scaling configuration
• Delete a cluster and clean up all resources

Part 1: Prerequisites

What You Need Before Starting

• An active AWS account (free tier available for new users — 1 year)
• A VPC configured in your AWS account
• An IAM Role with the required permissions to create and manage EKS resources
• AWS user credentials stored locally on your machine

Configure AWS Credentials Locally

Before running any eksctl command, your AWS credentials must be available locally. eksctl will authenticate with AWS using these credentials, and the user that runs the command will have admin access to the created cluster.

# Verify your AWS credentials are configured
aws configure

# Check the current identity (user that will own the cluster)
aws sts get-caller-identity

Part 2: Install eksctl

Overview

eksctl is an open-source CLI tool created by Weaveworks, with many community contributors. It automates the entire EKS cluster creation process — VPC, subnets, IAM roles, node groups — all with a single command.