EKS Networking Modes

EKS Networking Modes An architecture diagram generated by Archify. AWS VPC CNI · aws-node DaemonSet · EKS cluster (AWS VPC) AWS VPC CNI aws-node DaemonSet ENI 1 · Secondary IP pool · EKS cluster (AWS VPC) ENI 1 Secondary IP pool ENI 2 · Secondary IP pool · EKS cluster (AWS VPC) ENI 2 Secondary IP pool Security Group · Applied per ENI · EKS cluster (AWS VPC) Security Group Applied per ENI Pods 1 · 2 · Native VPC IP · EKS cluster (AWS VPC) Pods 1 · 2 Native VPC IP Pod 3 · Native VPC IP · EKS cluster (AWS VPC) Pod 3 Native VPC IP attaches ENI adds ENI assigns IP assigns IP SG association EKS cluster (AWS VPC) Legend Frontend Backend Cloud Security

AWS VPC CNI (default)

  • • Native VPC networking that hands each pod a real VPC IP
  • • No overlay, so it performs best
  • • Per-instance-type ENI and IP limits cap pod density

Custom networking

  • • Assigns pods IPs from a separate, designated subnet
  • • A secondary CIDR block widens the IP address space
  • • It needs extra ENIConfig setup, so configuration gets more complex

Alternative CNI plugins

  • • Calico or Cilium add advanced network policy and observability
  • • Overlay networking reduces VPC IP consumption
  • • Encapsulation overhead raises latency and CPU use