# Launching an EKS cluster

Below we describe how we can launch and use Kontain in an Amazon EKS (Kubernetes) cluster.

# Starting up an EKS cluster

# Pre-requisites

Follow step outlines in Getting started with the AWS CLI to setup your CLI.
Set up your credentials. Create two environment variables from the values you created

export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=XXXXXXXXXXXXX
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=XXXXXXXXXXX

# Create cluster using Kontain helper script

Download helper script and make sure it is executable

curl -o eks-cluster.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kontainapp/k8s-deploy/master/helpers/eks-cluster.sh
chmod +x eks-cluster.sh

Run script using your credentials. Make sure to set region and prefix to your desired values. The script will create AKS cluster with the name <prefix>-eks-cluster. All other associated recource names are prefixed with <prefix>.

eks-cluster.sh  --region=<your region> --ami=<Kontain-enabled AMI id> <prefix>

To locate Kontain-enabled ami run use the following command:

aws ec2 describe-images --region=us-west-1 --filters "Name=name,Values=kontain-eks-node*" | jq -r '.Images[] | "AMI-Id: \(.ImageId), Name: \(.Name)"'

and select the version you want.

At this moment, Kontain provides images only in us-west-1. If you woudl like to use it in another region copy AMI to your region first. Then use newly created AMI-ID

# Verify your cluster was created

aws eks list-clusters --region=<your region>

# Enable and Test Kontain Runtime

Please refer to: Install Kontain in Kubernetes

# Clean up

To delete cluster and all associated resources use the following

eks-cluster.sh  --region=<your region> <prefix> --cleanup