EKS Hybrid Nodes

Overview

EKS Hybrid Nodes extend EKS to on-premises and edge locations using physical or virtual machines.

Key Use Cases

• Edge computing (retail, manufacturing, telecom)
• On-premises data center integration
• Low-latency local processing
• Data residency requirements

Architecture

EKS Cluster (AWS)
    |
    |-- Cloud Nodes (EC2 - MNG, Karpenter, Fargate)
    |
    |-- Hybrid Nodes (On-premises VMs or bare metal)

Requirements

• VPN or Direct Connect to AWS
• Hybrid node machines must meet requirements
• EKS Connector installed in cluster

Setup Overview

1. Create EKS cluster (if not exists)
2. Install EKS Connector
3. Prepare on-premises machines
4. Register hybrid nodes with cluster

Limitations

• Pod networking uses custom CNI configuration
• EBS volumes not supported
• EFS not supported
• Some AWS service integrations may differ

References

• EKS Hybrid Nodes
• EKS Workshop - Hybrid Nodes