Adding EKS Capabilities -ACK,ARGO CD, KRO

[dshamanthreddy]

Outline the high level topic of the lab

This hands-on lab explores extending Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) functionality by integrating three powerful Kubernetes ecosystem tools that enhance cluster capabilities for modern cloud-native applications. Participants will learn to implement AWS Controllers for Kubernetes (ACK) for managing AWS services directly from Kubernetes, Argo CD for GitOps-based continuous delivery, and Kubernetes Resource Orchestrator (KRO) for advanced resource management and orchestration patterns.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• Deploy and configure ACK controllers to provision AWS resources from Kubernetes manifests
• Implement GitOps workflows using Argo CD for automated application delivery
• Leverage KRO for orchestrating complex resource dependencies and lifecycle management
• Understand integration patterns between these tools within an EKS environment

Provide the flow of the lab exercise, including what sample application components will be used

Here's a streamlined 40-minute lab flow focused on enabling the three EKS capabilities:

Phase 1: Environment Setup (5 minutes)

• Connect to pre-provisioned EKS cluster
• Verify kubectl access and cluster readiness
• Review the sample application architecture

Phase 2: Enable ACK Controllers & Create AWS Resources (12 minutes)

Install ACK Controllers:

• Install ACK controller for DynamoDB (3 min)
• Install ACK controller for RDS (3 min)

Phase 3: Deploy Application Using Argo CD (15 minutes)

Install & Configure Argo CD:

• Install Argo CD in the cluster (4 min)
• Access Argo CD UI and login (2 min)
• Connect to Git repository containing application manifests (2 min)

Phase 4: Orchestrate with KRO (8 minutes)

Install & Configure KRO:

• Install Kubernetes Resource Orchestrator (2 min)
• Create ResourceGroup CRD defining the complete stack (3 min)

What additional AWS infrastructure or EKS addons/components will need to be created or installed to support this lab?

Will reuse the same cluster and other resources supporting

What additional software or configuration will be required in the Cloud9 IDE?

No

Are enhancements to the retail sample application required to support this lab exercise?

No