EKS Managed Node Group Architecture

EKS Managed Node Group Architecture An architecture diagram generated by Archify. EKS control plane · AWS-managed · EKS cluster EKS control plane AWS-managed Managed node group · Launch template · AMI · EKS cluster Managed node group Launch template · AMI Auto Scaling group · min · max · desired · EKS cluster Auto Scaling group min · max · desired EC2 instances 1-3 · Bootstrap · kubelet join · EKS cluster EC2 instances 1-3 Bootstrap · kubelet join Pods · Scheduled workloads · EKS cluster Pods Scheduled workloads manages delegates capacity launches instances runs pods EKS cluster Legend Frontend Backend Cloud

What a managed node group handles

  • • It picks the EKS-optimized AMI and injects the bootstrap script for you
  • • On update it performs a rolling replacement, including cordon and drain
  • • It applies the eks.amazonaws.com tags and labels to nodes automatically

Capacity and scaling

  • • min, max, and desired define the Auto Scaling group's range
  • • Capacity type, on-demand or spot, is chosen per node group
  • • Cluster Autoscaler adjusts this ASG; Karpenter creates nodes directly without node groups

Operational cautions

  • • Editing the launch template by hand can drift from the version the node group tracks
  • • Set PodDisruptionBudgets before a node group upgrade to protect availability
  • • Put taints and labels in the node group definition to steer workload placement