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walkthrough: echoserver

In this walkthrough, you'll

  • Create a cluster with EKS
  • Deploy an aws-load-balancer-controller
  • Create deployments and ingress resources in the cluster
  • Verify access to the service
  • (Optional) Use external-dns to create a DNS record pointing to the load balancer created by the aws-load-balancer-controller.
    • This assumes you have a route53 hosted zone available. Otherwise you can access the service using the load balancer DNS.

Create the EKS cluster

  1. Install eksctl: https://eksctl.io

  2. Create EKS cluster via eksctl

    eksctl create cluster

    2018-08-14T11:19:09-07:00 [ℹ]  setting availability zones to [us-west-2c us-west-2a us-west-2b]
2018-08-14T11:19:09-07:00 [ℹ]  importing SSH public key "/Users/kamador/.ssh/id_rsa.pub" as "eksctl-exciting-gopher-1534270749-b7:71:da:f6:f3:63:7a:ee:ad:7a:10:37:28:ff:44:d1"
2018-08-14T11:19:10-07:00 [ℹ]  creating EKS cluster "exciting-gopher-1534270749" in "us-west-2" region
2018-08-14T11:19:10-07:00 [ℹ]  creating ServiceRole stack "EKS-exciting-gopher-1534270749-ServiceRole"
2018-08-14T11:19:10-07:00 [ℹ]  creating VPC stack "EKS-exciting-gopher-1534270749-VPC"
2018-08-14T11:19:50-07:00 [✔]  created ServiceRole stack "EKS-exciting-gopher-1534270749-ServiceRole"
2018-08-14T11:20:30-07:00 [✔]  created VPC stack "EKS-exciting-gopher-1534270749-VPC"
2018-08-14T11:20:30-07:00 [ℹ]  creating control plane "exciting-gopher-1534270749"
2018-08-14T11:31:52-07:00 [✔]  created control plane "exciting-gopher-1534270749"
2018-08-14T11:31:52-07:00 [ℹ]  creating DefaultNodeGroup stack "EKS-exciting-gopher-1534270749-DefaultNodeGroup"
2018-08-14T11:35:33-07:00 [✔]  created DefaultNodeGroup stack "EKS-exciting-gopher-1534270749-DefaultNodeGroup"
2018-08-14T11:35:33-07:00 [✔]  all EKS cluster "exciting-gopher-1534270749" resources has been created
2018-08-14T11:35:33-07:00 [✔]  saved kubeconfig as "/Users/kamador/.kube/config"
2018-08-14T11:35:34-07:00 [ℹ]  the cluster has 0 nodes
2018-08-14T11:35:34-07:00 [ℹ]  waiting for at least 2 nodes to become ready
2018-08-14T11:36:05-07:00 [ℹ]  the cluster has 2 nodes
2018-08-14T11:36:05-07:00 [ℹ]  node "ip-192-168-139-176.us-west-2.compute.internal" is ready
2018-08-14T11:36:05-07:00 [ℹ]  node "ip-192-168-214-126.us-west-2.compute.internal" is ready
2018-08-14T11:36:05-07:00 [✔]  EKS cluster "exciting-gopher-1534270749" in "us-west-2" region is ready

Setup the AWS Load Balancer controller

  1. Refer to the installation instructions to setup the controller

  2. Verify the deployment was successful and the controller started.

    kubectl logs -n kube-system --tail -1 -l app.kubernetes.io/name=aws-load-balancer-controller

    Should display output similar to the following.

    {"level":"info","ts":1602778062.2588625,"logger":"setup","msg":"version","GitVersion":"v2.0.0-rc3-13-gcdc8f715-dirty","GitCommit":"cdc8f715919cc65ca8161b6083c4091222632d6b","BuildDate":"2020-10-15T15:58:31+0000"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778065.4515743,"logger":"controller-runtime.metrics","msg":"metrics server is starting to listen","addr":":8080"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778065.4536595,"logger":"controller-runtime.webhook","msg":"registering webhook","path":"/mutate-v1-pod"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778065.4537156,"logger":"controller-runtime.webhook","msg":"registering webhook","path":"/mutate-elbv2-k8s-aws-v1beta1-targetgroupbinding"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778065.4537542,"logger":"controller-runtime.webhook","msg":"registering webhook","path":"/validate-elbv2-k8s-aws-v1beta1-targetgroupbinding"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778065.4537594,"logger":"setup","msg":"starting manager"}
I1015 16:07:45.453851       1 leaderelection.go:242] attempting to acquire leader lease  kube-system/aws-load-balancer-controller-leader...
{"level":"info","ts":1602778065.5544264,"logger":"controller-runtime.manager","msg":"starting metrics server","path":"/metrics"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778065.5544496,"logger":"controller-runtime.webhook.webhooks","msg":"starting webhook server"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778065.5549548,"logger":"controller-runtime.certwatcher","msg":"Updated current TLS certificate"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778065.5550802,"logger":"controller-runtime.webhook","msg":"serving webhook server","host":"","port":9443}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778065.5551715,"logger":"controller-runtime.certwatcher","msg":"Starting certificate watcher"}
I1015 16:08:03.662023       1 leaderelection.go:252] successfully acquired lease kube-system/aws-load-balancer-controller-leader
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.663017,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting EventSource","controller":"targetGroupBinding","source":"kind source: /, Kind="}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.6631303,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting EventSource","controller":"targetGroupBinding","source":"kind source: /, Kind="}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.6633205,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting EventSource","controller":"ingress","source":"channel source: 0xc0007340f0"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.6633654,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting EventSource","controller":"ingress","source":"channel source: 0xc000734140"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.6633892,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting EventSource","controller":"ingress","source":"kind source: /, Kind="}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.663441,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting EventSource","controller":"ingress","source":"kind source: /, Kind="}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.6634624,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting EventSource","controller":"ingress","source":"kind source: /, Kind="}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.6635776,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting EventSource","controller":"service","source":"kind source: /, Kind="}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.6636262,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting Controller","controller":"service"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.7634695,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting EventSource","controller":"targetGroupBinding","source":"kind source: /, Kind="}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.7637022,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting workers","controller":"service","worker count":3}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.7641861,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting Controller","controller":"ingress"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.8641882,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting Controller","controller":"targetGroupBinding"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.864236,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting workers","controller":"targetGroupBinding","worker count":3}
{"level":"info","ts":1602778083.8643816,"logger":"controller-runtime.controller","msg":"Starting workers","controller":"ingress","worker count":3}

Deploy the echoserver resources

  1. Deploy all the echoserver resources (namespace, service, deployment)

    kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.6.1/docs/examples/echoservice/echoserver-namespace.yaml &&\
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.6.1/docs/examples/echoservice/echoserver-service.yaml &&\
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.6.1/docs/examples/echoservice/echoserver-deployment.yaml

  2. List all the resources to ensure they were created.

    kubectl get -n echoserver deploy,svc

    Should resolve similar to the following.

    NAME             CLUSTER-IP   EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)        AGE
svc/echoserver   10.3.31.76   <nodes>       80:31027/TCP   4d

NAME                DESIRED   CURRENT   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
deploy/echoserver   1         1         1            1           4d

Deploy ingress for echoserver

  1. Download the echoserver ingress manifest locally.

    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.6.1/docs/examples/echoservice/echoserver-ingress.yaml

  2. Configure the subnets, either by add annotation to the ingress or add tags to subnets. This step is optional in lieu of auto-discovery.

    Tip

    If you'd like to use external dns, alter the host field to a domain that you own in Route 53. Assuming you managed example.com in Route 53.

    • Edit the alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/subnets annotation to include at least two subnets. Subnets must be from different Availability Zones. 

      eksctl get cluster exciting-gopher-1534270749


      NAME                        VERSION STATUS         CREATED          VPC                     SUBNETS                             SECURITYGROUPS
exciting-gopher-1534270749  1.10    ACTIVE  2018-08-14T18:20:32Z    vpc-0aa01b07b3c922c9c   subnet-05e1c98ed0f5b109e,subnet-07f5bb81f661df61b,subnet-0a4e6232630820516  sg-05ceb5eee9fd7cac4

      apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
    name: echoserver
    namespace: echoserver
    annotations:
        alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/scheme: internet-facing
        alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/target-type: ip
        alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/subnets: subnet-05e1c98ed0f5b109e,subnet-07f5bb81f661df61b,subnet-0a4e6232630820516
        alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/tags: Environment=dev,Team=test
spec:
    rules:
    - http:
        paths:

    • Adding tags to subnets for auto-discovery(instead of alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/subnets annotation)

      you must include the following tags on desired subnets.

      • kubernetes.io/cluster/$CLUSTER_NAME where $CLUSTER_NAME is the same CLUSTER_NAME specified in the above step.
      • kubernetes.io/role/internal-elb should be set to 1 or an empty tag value for internal load balancers.
      • kubernetes.io/role/elb should be set to 1 or an empty tag value for internet-facing load balancers.

      An example of a subnet with the correct tags for the cluster joshcalico is as follows.

      subnet-tags

  3. Deploy the ingress resource for echoserver

    kubectl apply -f echoserver-ingress.yaml

  4. Verify the aws-load-balancer-controller creates the resources

    kubectl logs -n kube-system --tail -1 -l app.kubernetes.io/name=aws-load-balancer-controller | grep 'echoserver\/echoserver'

    You should see similar to the following.

    {"level":"info","ts":1602803965.264764,"logger":"controllers.ingress","msg":"successfully built model","model":"{\"id\":\"echoserver/echoserver\",\"resources\":{\"AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup\":{\"ManagedLBSecurityGroup\":{\"spec\":{\"groupName\":\"k8s-echoserv-echoserv-4e1e34cae5\",\"description\":\"[k8s] Managed SecurityGroup for LoadBalancer\",\"tags\":{\"Environment\":\"dev\",\"Team\":\"test\"},\"ingress\":[{\"ipProtocol\":\"tcp\",\"fromPort\":80,\"toPort\":80,\"ipRanges\":[{\"cidrIP\":\"0.0.0.0/0\"}]}]}}},\"AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::Listener\":{\"80\":{\"spec\":{\"loadBalancerARN\":{\"$ref\":\"#/resources/AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::LoadBalancer/LoadBalancer/status/loadBalancerARN\"},\"port\":80,\"protocol\":\"HTTP\",\"defaultActions\":[{\"type\":\"fixed-response\",\"fixedResponseConfig\":{\"contentType\":\"text/plain\",\"statusCode\":\"404\"}}]}}},\"AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::ListenerRule\":{\"80:1\":{\"spec\":{\"listenerARN\":{\"$ref\":\"#/resources/AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::Listener/80/status/listenerARN\"},\"priority\":1,\"actions\":[{\"type\":\"forward\",\"forwardConfig\":{\"targetGroups\":[{\"targetGroupARN\":{\"$ref\":\"#/resources/AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::TargetGroup/echoserver/echoserver-echoserver:80/status/targetGroupARN\"}}]}}],\"conditions\":[{\"field\":\"host-header\",\"hostHeaderConfig\":{\"values\":[\"echoserver.example.com\"]}},{\"field\":\"path-pattern\",\"pathPatternConfig\":{\"values\":[\"/\"]}}]}}},\"AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::LoadBalancer\":{\"LoadBalancer\":{\"spec\":{\"name\":\"k8s-echoserv-echoserv-d4d6bd65d0\",\"type\":\"application\",\"scheme\":\"internet-facing\",\"ipAddressType\":\"ipv4\",\"subnetMapping\":[{\"subnetID\":\"subnet-01b35707c23b0a43b\"},{\"subnetID\":\"subnet-0f7814a7ab4dfcc2c\"}],\"securityGroups\":[{\"$ref\":\"#/resources/AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup/ManagedLBSecurityGroup/status/groupID\"}],\"tags\":{\"Environment\":\"dev\",\"Team\":\"test\"}}}},\"AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::TargetGroup\":{\"echoserver/echoserver-echoserver:80\":{\"spec\":{\"name\":\"k8s-echoserv-echoserv-d989093207\",\"targetType\":\"instance\",\"port\":1,\"protocol\":\"HTTP\",\"healthCheckConfig\":{\"port\":\"traffic-port\",\"protocol\":\"HTTP\",\"path\":\"/\",\"matcher\":{\"httpCode\":\"200\"},\"intervalSeconds\":15,\"timeoutSeconds\":5,\"healthyThresholdCount\":2,\"unhealthyThresholdCount\":2},\"tags\":{\"Environment\":\"dev\",\"Team\":\"test\"}}}},\"K8S::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::TargetGroupBinding\":{\"echoserver/echoserver-echoserver:80\":{\"spec\":{\"template\":{\"metadata\":{\"name\":\"k8s-echoserv-echoserv-d989093207\",\"namespace\":\"echoserver\",\"creationTimestamp\":null},\"spec\":{\"targetGroupARN\":{\"$ref\":\"#/resources/AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::TargetGroup/echoserver/echoserver-echoserver:80/status/targetGroupARN\"},\"targetType\":\"instance\",\"serviceRef\":{\"name\":\"echoserver\",\"port\":80},\"networking\":{\"ingress\":[{\"from\":[{\"securityGroup\":{\"groupID\":{\"$ref\":\"#/resources/AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup/ManagedLBSecurityGroup/status/groupID\"}}}],\"ports\":[{\"protocol\":\"TCP\"}]}]}}}}}}}}"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602803966.411922,"logger":"controllers.ingress","msg":"creating targetGroup","stackID":"echoserver/echoserver","resourceID":"echoserver/echoserver-echoserver:80"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602803966.6606336,"logger":"controllers.ingress","msg":"created targetGroup","stackID":"echoserver/echoserver","resourceID":"echoserver/echoserver-echoserver:80","arn":"arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-west-2:019453415603:targetgroup/k8s-echoserv-echoserv-d989093207/63225ae3ead3deb6"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602803966.798019,"logger":"controllers.ingress","msg":"creating loadBalancer","stackID":"echoserver/echoserver","resourceID":"LoadBalancer"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602803967.5472538,"logger":"controllers.ingress","msg":"created loadBalancer","stackID":"echoserver/echoserver","resourceID":"LoadBalancer","arn":"arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-west-2:019453415603:loadbalancer/app/k8s-echoserv-echoserv-d4d6bd65d0/4b4ebe8d6e1ef0c1"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602803967.5863476,"logger":"controllers.ingress","msg":"creating listener","stackID":"echoserver/echoserver","resourceID":"80"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602803967.6436293,"logger":"controllers.ingress","msg":"created listener","stackID":"echoserver/echoserver","resourceID":"80","arn":"arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-west-2:019453415603:listener/app/k8s-echoserv-echoserv-d4d6bd65d0/4b4ebe8d6e1ef0c1/6e13477f9d840da0"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602803967.6528971,"logger":"controllers.ingress","msg":"creating listener rule","stackID":"echoserver/echoserver","resourceID":"80:1"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602803967.7160048,"logger":"controllers.ingress","msg":"created listener rule","stackID":"echoserver/echoserver","resourceID":"80:1","arn":"arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-west-2:019453415603:listener-rule/app/k8s-echoserv-echoserv-d4d6bd65d0/4b4ebe8d6e1ef0c1/6e13477f9d840da0/23ef859380e792e8"}
{"level":"info","ts":1602803967.8484688,"logger":"controllers.ingress","msg":"successfully deployed model","ingressGroup":"echoserver/echoserver"}

  5. Check the events of the ingress to see what has occur.

    kubectl describe ing -n echoserver echoserver

    You should see similar to the following.

    Name:                   echoserver
Namespace:              echoserver
Address:                joshcalico-echoserver-echo-2ad7-1490890749.us-east-2.elb.amazonaws.com
Default backend:        default-http-backend:80 (10.2.1.28:8080)
Rules:
  Host                          Path    Backends
  ----                          ----    --------
  *
                                /       echoserver:80 (<none>)
Annotations:
Events:
  FirstSeen     LastSeen        Count   From                    SubObjectPath   Type            Reason  Message
  ---------     --------        -----   ----                    -------------   --------        ------  -------
  3m            3m              1       ingress-controller                      Normal          CREATE  Ingress echoserver/echoserver
  3m            32s             3       ingress-controller                      Normal          UPDATE  Ingress echoserver/echoserver

    The address seen above is the ALB's DNS name. This will be referenced via records created by external-dns if you choose to set it up.

Verify that you can access the service

Make a curl request to the echoserver service and verify that it returns a response payload. Use the address from the output of kubectl describe ing command above.

curl <load-balancer-dns-name>

You should get back a valid response.

(Optional) Use external-dns to create a DNS record

  1. Deploy external-dns to your cluster using these instructions - Setup external-dns

  2. Update your ingress resource and add spec.rules[0].host and set the value to your domain name. The example below uses echoserver.example.org.

     spec:
         rules:
         - host: echoserver.example.org
           http:
             paths:
1. external-dns will then create a DNS record for the host you specified. This assumes you have the hosted zone corresponding to the domain you are trying to create a record in.

  1. Annotate the ingress with the external-dns specific configuration

    annotations:
  kubernetes.io/ingress.class: alb
  alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/scheme: internet-facing

  # external-dns specific configuration for creating route53 record-set
  external-dns.alpha.kubernetes.io/hostname: my-app.test-dns.com # give your domain name here

  2. Verify the DNS has propagated

    dig echoserver.example.org

    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
;echoserver.example.org.  IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
echoserver.example.org. 60 IN     A       13.59.147.105
echoserver.example.org. 60 IN     A       18.221.65.39
echoserver.example.org. 60 IN     A       52.15.186.25

  3. Once it has, you can make a call to echoserver and it should return a response payload.

    curl echoserver.example.org

    CLIENT VALUES:
client_address=10.0.50.185
command=GET
real path=/
query=nil
request_version=1.1
request_uri=http://echoserver.example.org:8080/

SERVER VALUES:
server_version=nginx: 1.10.0 - lua: 10001

HEADERS RECEIVED:
accept=*/*
host=echoserver.example.org
user-agent=curl/7.54.0
x-amzn-trace-id=Root=1-59c08da5-113347df69640735312371bd
x-forwarded-for=67.173.237.250
x-forwarded-port=80
x-forwarded-proto=http
BODY:

Kube2iam setup

follow below steps if you want to use kube2iam to provide the AWS credentials

  1. configure the proper policy The policy to be used can be fetched from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.6.1/docs/install/iam_policy.json

  2. configure the proper role and create the trust relationship You have to find which role is associated with your K8S nodes. Once you found take note of the full arn:

    arn:aws:iam::XXXXXXXXXXXX:role/k8scluster-node

  3. create the role, called k8s-lb-controller, attach the above policy and add a Trust Relationship like:

    {
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "Service": "ec2.amazonaws.com"
      },
      "Action": "sts:AssumeRole"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::XXXXXXXXXXXX:role/k8scluster-node"
      },
      "Action": "sts:AssumeRole"
    }
  ]
}

    The new role will have a similar arn:

    arn:aws:iam:::XXXXXXXXXXXX:role/k8s-lb-controller

  4. update the alb-load-balancer-controller deployment

    Add the annotations in the template's metadata point

    spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
matchLabels:
  app.kubernetes.io/component: controller
  app.kubernetes.io/name: aws-load-balancer-controller
strategy:
  rollingUpdate:
    maxSurge: 1
    maxUnavailable: 1
  type: RollingUpdate
template:
  metadata:
    annotations:
      iam.amazonaws.com/role: arn:aws:iam:::XXXXXXXXXXXX:role/k8s-lb-controller