What is Kubernetes on AWS?

Kubernetes on AWS

Kubernetes is a free-source software that allows you to place and manage containerized applications at scale. Kubernetes manages clusters of Amazon EC2 to compute instances and runs containers on those particular instances with processes for deployment, maintenance, and scaling. Using Kubernetes, you can run any containerized application using the same toolset on-premises and within the cloud.

AWS makes it easy to run Kubernetes within the cloud with scalable and highly available virtual machine infrastructure, community-backed service integrations, and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), a managed service and certified Kubernetes conformant to run Kubernetes on AWS and on-premises.

Kubernetes is used as an open-source project. You can use Kubernetes to run your containerized applications anywhere without varying your operational tooling. Kubernetes is maintained by an outsized community of volunteers and is usually improving. Additionally, many other open-source projects and vendors build and maintain Kubernetes-compatible software that you can use to strengthen and extend your application architecture. 

 Features of Kubernetes on AWS

• Run Applications at Scale

Kubernetes helps you define complex containerized applications and run them at scale across a cluster of servers.

• Moving Applications

Using Kubernetes, containerized applications are often seamlessly moved from local development machines to production deployments on the cloud using equivalent operational tooling.

• Run Anywhere

Run highly available and scalable Kubernetes clusters on AWS while maintaining full compatibility in conjunction with your Kubernetes deployments running on-premises.

• Add New Functionality

As an open-source project, adding new functionality to Kubernetes is straightforward. An outsized community of developers and corporations build extensions, integrations, and plugins that help Kubernetes users do more.

You'll configure and manage your deployment by yourself when developing AWS on Kubernetes for complete flexibility and control. You have the choice of using either AWS-provided services or third-party services to manage your implementation.

Alternatives to Self-Management Include

• kops - kops is a free-source tool you can use to automate the provisioning and management of clusters in AWS. Even though it is not a managed tool, kops enables you to efficiently resolve deployment and maintenance processes. AWS officially supports it.
• Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a managed service offered by AWS. EKS takes the help of automatically provisioned instances and provides a managed control plane for your deployment.
• Rancher - An enterprise computing platform to deploy Kubernetes clusters everywhere: on-premises, within the cloud, and at the sting. Rancher unifies these clusters to ensure consistent operations, workload management, and enterprise-grade security.
• Heptio - Heptio provides an answer that supports CloudFormation and kubeadm to deploy Kubernetes on AWS and supports multi-AZ. Heptio is suitable for users already conversant in the CloudFormation AWS orchestration tool.
• Kismatic Enterprise Toolkit (KET) - KET can be a group of tools with sensitive defaults which are production-ready to make an enterprise-tuned cluster of Kubernetes. The objective of this toolkit is to make it easy for organizations to place in and manage their Kubernetes infrastructure and clusters.
• Kubeadm - The kubeadm project, targets an answer to form an easy cluster on AWS using Terraform. It's an adequate tool for tests and proofs-of-concept only because it doesn't support multi-AZ and other advanced features.
• OpenShift - This is often a Red Hat platform as a service product for container-based deployment and management of software. There's an open-source version called OpenShift Origin, which includes developer and operations-centric tools on the top of Kubernetes to enable the easy deployment, rapid application development, scaling, and long-term lifecycle maintenance for small and massive teams.
• Stackpoint - This could also be a web-based solution that provides a user-friendly platform to provision Kubernetes on various cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and Digital Ocean. This is often a simple tool for those using one cloud provider and who would adore one place for managing their multi-cloud Kubernetes deployments.
• Tack - Tack is a terraform module useful in designing Kubernetes' clusters that run on any version of CoreOS on AWS. Supports multi-AZ deployments of worker nodes that are ready to auto-scale.

      Tack works in three phases:

1. Pre-Terraform - The purpose of this phase is to prep the environment for Terraform execution.
2. Terraform - Terraform performs the heavy lifting of resource creation and sequencing. Tack utilizes local modules to partition the work logically.
3. Post-Terraform - Once the infrastructure has been configured and instantiated, it will take some time to settle.

• Tectonic - Tectonic enables an automatic installation of Kubernetes with the goals of being secure by default, quick and easy to place in clusters, highly available, modular, and customizable. It also runs on any operating system and focuses on adaptability to multiple cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure.

Why Run Kubernetes on AWS?

AWS is the top-most solution for running cloud-native applications, but setting up and running Kubernetes on it can be complex. Despite this limitation, there are several reasons to run Kubernetes on AWS. One of the most engaging reasons is to take advantage of the vast number of available services. Other reasons to use Kubernetes on AWS, over say, ECS include:

• Complete control over your servers - An upside of using Kubernetes on AWS is that it gives you control over your occurrence, which does not usually happen with any other cloud provider. 
• Surplus to open source software without customer lock-in - Kubernetes is thoroughly open-source then there are various tools surrounding it. They provide you with a wide-open, well-supported community with many options.
• Portability - Kubernetes runs anywhere: bare metal, public cloud, private cloud, and may even run on multiple public clouds if you want.
• Cloud bursting and personal workload protection - With Kubernetes, you'll run a part of your cluster within the public cloud; on the other hand, have sensitive workloads that spill over and run in a private cloud on-premises, for example.

When installing Kubernetes on AWS, these are the services that you will get to be conversant within each section. We will describe what you would like to understand when configuring a cluster.

How Kubernetes on AWS Works

Kubernetes works by organizing a cluster of compute instances and scheduling containers to run on the set supported by the available compute resources and, therefore, the resource needs of every container. Containers are run in logical groupings called pods, and you'll run and scale one or many containers together as a pod. 

Kubernetes control plane software decides when and where to run your pods, manages traffic routing, and scales your pods supported utilization or other metrics that you define. Kubernetes automatically starts pods on your cluster that support their resource requirements and automatically restarts pods if they or the instances they're running on fail. Each pod is given an I.P. address and one DNS name, which Kubernetes uses to attach your services and external traffic.

Five Ways to Run Kubernetes on AWS:

1. Creating a Kubernetes Cluster on AWS With EKS

AWS removes the complexities from upgrades, patches, creation, and cluster setup with this feature. With the help of EKS, you get an H.A. system with three master nodes for each cluster across three AWS availability zones.

Although getting a Kubernetes up and running on AWS is beneficial, there are still some prerequisites:

• An AWS account
• An IAM role with appropriate permissions to permit Kubernetes to make innovative AWS setups
• A VPC and security for your cluster (one for every cluster is recommended)
• kubectl installed (you might want the Amazon EKS-vended version)
• AWS CLI installed

2. Formulating a Kubernetes Cluster on AWS With kops

Using Kubernetes Operations (kOps) abstracts away the complexity of managing Kubernetes clusters on AWS. It was explicitly designed to figure with AWS, and integrations with other public cloud providers are available. In addition to completely automating the installation of your k8s cluster, kOps runs everything in Auto-Scaling Groups and may support H.A. deployments. It also can generate a Terraform manifest that can be used in version control or can be used to have Terraform create the cluster.

If you would like to use kOps, there are a variety of prerequisites before creating and organizing your first cluster:

• Have kubectl installed in your system
• Install kOps on a 64-bit device architecture
• Setup your AWS prerequisites
• An AWS account
• A fanatical kOps IAM user with adequate permissions
• The AWS CLI installed in your system
• Set up DNS for the cluster, e.g., on Route53 (or, for a quickstart trial, a more accessible alternative is to make a gossip-based cluster)

3. Formulating a Kubernetes Cluster on AWS With Kubeadm

Kubeadm may be a tool that is part of the official Kubernetes project. While kubeadm is a powerful tool to use, it can also be easy to try to get a K8s cluster and run it with a production system. It is specifically designed to put Kubernetes on existing machines. Even though it'll get your cluster up and running, you'll still want to integrate provisioning tools like Terraform or Ansible to end building your basic infrastructure.

Prerequisites:

• Kubeadm installed in your system
• One or more EC2 machines running a deb/rpm-compatible Linux O.S. (e.g., Ubuntu), 2GB+ per machine, and at least 2 CPUs on the master node machine
• Full-fledged network connectivity (public or private) among all machines within the cluster

4. Formulating a Kubernetes Cluster on AWS With Kubeadm

Another installer tool lures Ansible playbooks to configure and manage the Kubernetes environment. One advantage of Kubespray is the ability to support multi-cloud deployments, so if you're looking to run your cluster through multiple providers or on bare metal, this might be of interest. Kubespray builds upon some kubeadm functionality and should be worth considering if you already use kubeadm.

Prerequisites:

• Remove the comment cloud_provider option in group_vars/all.yml and set the former to 'AWS.'
• IAM roles and policies for both "Kubernetes-master" and "Kubernetes-node."
• Tag the resources in the VPC appropriately for the AWS provider
• VPC has both DNS Hostnames support and personal DNS enabled
• Hostnames in your inventory file must be just like internal hostnames in AWS

5. Manually Creating a Kubernetes Cluster on EC2

If EKS is the "easy button," installing on EC2 instances is the other. This might be for you if you would like complete flexibility and control over your Kubernetes deployment. If you have spent any time with Kubernetes, you must have certainly heard of "Kubernetes the Hard Way." While KTHW initially targeted the Google Cloud Platform, AWS instructions are included within the AWS and Kubernetes section. Running through the instructions provides an in-depth, step-by-step process of manually fixing a cluster on EC2 servers that you have provisioned. The title, by the way, isn't a misnomer, and if you are doing a run of this manual process, you'll reap the rewards of getting a deep understanding of how Kubernetes internals work.

Suppose you're getting to use your Kubernetes on the EC2 system in production. In that case, you'll likely still want a certain level of automation, and a functional approach shall be used with Terraform with Ansible. While Terraform is far from quite a K8s install, it also allows you to manage your infrastructure as code by scripting tasks and to manage them in version control. There is a Kubernetes-specific Terraform module that helps to facilitate this. Ansible complements Terraform's infrastructure management prowess with software management functionality for scripting Kubernetes resource management tasks via the Kubernetes API server.

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) is an organized service that you can use to run Kubernetes on AWS without having to put in, operate, and maintain your Kubernetes control plane or nodes. Kubernetes is a free-source system for automating containerized applications' deployment, scaling, and management. 

Amazon EKS runs and scales the Kubernetes control plane across multiple AWS Availability Zones to ensure high availability. It automatically scales control plane instances supported load, detects and replaces unhealthy control plane instances, and provides automated version updates and patches. It is integrated with many AWS services to supply scalability and security for your applications, including the subsequent capabilities:

1. Amazon ECR for container image
2. Elastic Load Balance for load distribution
3. IAM for reliability
4. Amazon VPC for solitude

Runs updated versions of the open-source Kubernetes software, so you'll use all of the prevailing plugins and toolkits from the Kubernetes community. Applications that run on Amazon EKS are fully compatible with applications running on any standard Kubernetes environment, regardless of whether they're running in on-premises data centers or public clouds. It means that you can migrate any standard Kubernetes application to Amazon EKS with no code modification.

Companies Using Amazon EKS

The various companies using Amazon EKS are:

• Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments is a financial services corporation. One of the most crucial asset managers globally operates a brokerage, manages an outsized family of mutual funds, cryptocurrency, and provides fund distribution and investment advice, wealth management, retirement services, index funds, clearance, and securities execution.

• Snap Inc

Snap Inc. is a camera cum social media company. It grants human progress by empowering people to express themselves, sleep in an instant, study the planet, and celebrate together.

• Babylon Health

Babylon is a subscription-based health service provider that permits users to have virtual consultations via text and video messaging with doctors and health care professionals through its mobile application to put accessible, affordable healthcare into the hands of each person on Earth.

• HSBC

HSBC is one of the world's largest banking and financial services organizations, serving around 40 million customers through their global businesses: Wealth and Private Banking, Commercial Banking, and Global Banking and Markets. It is an investment bank and financial services company. 

• Amazon.com

Amazon.com is a tech-based company that primarily focuses on e-business, cloud computing, digital streaming, and Artificial Intelligence.

• GoDaddy

GoDaddy empowers day-to-day entrepreneurs by providing all of the technical assistance and tools to succeed online. With just about 19 million users worldwide, GoDaddy is the place where people build a well-informed website, come to label their idea, attract customers, and manage their work.

• Bird

Bird is a micro-mobility company with 10 million rides in its 1st year of operation in shared electric scooters in 100+ cities in the central part of Europe and North America.

• Delivery Hero

Delivery Hero may be a popular online food ordering and delivery marketplace. This company operates delivery fleets in 39 countries, transporting about 1 million food orders every day.

• freee K.K.

freee K.K. is one of the fastest-growing fintech startups listed on the TSE Mothers market in 2019, with Japan's most important market share. freee K.K. develops and deploys cloud-based accounting and software services to bring new changes to SMBs.

• SuperAwesome

SuperAwesome wants to make the web safer for teenagers. They built a tech platform that helps all the users within the digital ecosystem create kid-safe digital engagement applications, including apps and sites, also as additional functionality like video, safe ad monetization, authentication, and community functionality.

• Nanit

Nanit is a startup that develops baby monitor devices connected through its mobile application. The camera captures the video of the kid, analyzes the footage, and shares insights supported by the baby's movement.

• FollowAnalytics

FollowAnalytics assists companies to understand their customer behavior in their mobile and web applications and retain them through highly-targeted marketing planning, using push and in-app notifications.

• Mercari

Mercari is an e-business and trade company operating in the U.S. and Japan. The Mercari marketplace application has grown to become Japan's largest community-powered marketplace with over JPY 10 billion in transactions administered on the platform monthly and over 100 million downloads. It is the primary Japanese company to succeed in unicorn status.

• amazee.io

amazee.io is a company that offers flexible open-source, high-performance, security, container hosting solutions built for speed, security, and scalability.

Summary of Kubernetes on AWS

AWS is a helpful solution for running cloud-native apps, but trying Kubernetes setup to run on it can be not easy. To remove the complexity of AWS, deployment tools like Kops are available in Kubernetes. Amazon also offers alternatives to lowering the operational overhead of fixing Kubernetes: Elastic Container Service (ECS), which may be a container orchestration service focused on high availability (H.A.) out-of-the-box but isn't portable to other infrastructure providers. And the Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes is compatible with existing Kubernetes configurations and provides H.A. across availability zones by default. Rancher and Terraform are tools that can help accelerate the deployment of applications in Kubernetes clusters. Rancher's forte is their application catalog that permits deploying standard and custom applications with a couple of clicks. Terraform is often helpful in adopting a unified infrastructure configuration language across providers.

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Conclusion 

Amazon EKS combines shared operations, integrated security tooling, common IAM, and consistent management tooling for computing and networking options. Take advantage of the simplicity of collective AWS services in Amazon ECS, or roll on your own using the flexibility of Kubernetes on Amazon EKS.

After learning about the Kubernetes on AWS and Amazon EKS that can be used to run your containerized applications anywhere, you can choose from various courses available on Simplilearn depending upon your need and the project you are planning to do. 

Simplilearn's Post Graduate Program in Cloud Computing program will help you build and scale up your career in Amazon EKS and Kubernetes on AWS. You should also check out the complete list of free online courses by Simplilearn to enhance your knowledge and skills. After weighing all other options and elevating your career prospects, you can select the best course.