EKS Cluster Upgrade Process

EKS Cluster Upgrade Process A workflow diagram generated by Archify. 01 / Plan and control plane 02 / Nodes and verification Upgrade plan · Compatibility · Plan and control plane Upgrade plan Compatibility Check version · One step · Plan and control plane Check version One step Control plane · update-cluster · Plan and control plane Control plane update-cluster Check status · Await ACTIVE · Plan and control plane Check status Await ACTIVE Node group · Rolling replace · Nodes and verification Node group Rolling replace Add-ons · tests · Function tests · Nodes and verification Add-ons · tests Function tests 1 confirm 2 run 3 check 4 done 5 add-ons Legend Prep · verify Upgrade target

Pre-upgrade checklist

  • • Review the removed and deprecated APIs between the current and target versions
  • • Check whether application manifests use API versions that were removed
  • • Upgrade dev and staging first and prepare a rollback plan

Order and commands

  • • Start with the control plane: aws eks update-cluster-version --name my-cluster --kubernetes-version 1.31
  • • Raise node groups with aws eks update-nodegroup-version (cordon and drain are automatic)
  • • Finally align the VPC CNI, CoreDNS, and kube-proxy add-ons with the cluster version
  • • Move one minor version at a time (1.29 → 1.30 → 1.31)

Rollback constraints

  • • The EKS control plane cannot be downgraded
  • • Only node groups can be rolled back to an earlier version
  • • Assume it is irreversible and put the weight on prior testing and backups