BYTE the Cloud

Chris 0:00
Hey everyone, welcome back today. We're going deep on Amazon, EKS distro.

Unknown Speaker 0:05
Yeah, you got it.

Chris 0:06
This is something that I know. It's

Kelly 0:08
a hot topic, yeah,

Chris 0:08
definitely a hot topic. And I think really valuable for folks like yourselves who are out there working as cloud engineers,

Kelly 0:15
especially at that mid level, yeah,

Chris 0:16
definitely mid level, getting into more of the architecture and design exactly. So what we're going to do is break down what it is, why it matters to you, how you can actually use it, you know, in the real world, in the real world, yep. And then we're also going to touch on because I know a lot of you out there are studying for AWS certs, how it might pop up on the exam,

Kelly 0:35
absolutely. So to really kick things off, let's just lean on a good foundation here and make sure we understand what Amazon EKS distro is, okay, so we gotta remember it's not just another Kubernetes service. It's a downstream distribution of Kubernetes, okay, and what that means is that it's built directly from that open source Kubernetes project, okay, so you're getting the same Kubernetes that you would get anywhere else, but it's optimized for AWS. So

Chris 1:02
it's like, we get the, I think, like the purity of Kubernetes, yeah, but then we also get all of the AWS goodness, yeah, all the AWS goodness. Yeah, that's great, exactly. Now, why is that important? Why would somebody

Kelly 1:13
that's a great question, yeah, and a lot of it comes down to consistency. Okay, you know, especially as organizations move towards hybrid or multi cloud strategies, right? You want to be able to ensure that you have a consistent Kubernetes experience no matter where you are, right? So if you're in your own data center, or if you're in the AWS cloud, you're using the same tools, the same workflows, it's all seamless.

Chris 1:37
So that makes a lot of sense, especially as folks are moving towards hybrid, even multi cloud, like you said, right? And I'm thinking too, like consistency just breeds, like, less errors, less things to learn, you know,

Kelly 1:50
makes everything so much easier, exactly, okay? So that makes a ton of sense. And another big advantage of EKS distro is that it can reduce that operational overhead,

Chris 2:00
okay, so less for us to manage. You know,

Kelly 2:04
AWS takes care of a lot of the complex management tasks that come with Kubernetes, right? Which really frees you up to focus on what you do best, which is hopefully building and deploying your application. Yeah,

Chris 2:15
yeah. Build applications, exactly. Okay, so less of the infrastructure management, yeah, all right, I like that more time to focus on your application. Okay? So we've talked about, like, conceptually, what it is, right? And we've talked about, you know, a couple like, the consistency and the operational overhead, yeah. Can you give us an example of how a company might use EKS distro,

Kelly 2:37
absolutely. So let's say you're a company and you have a very large microservices architecture, and you're thinking, how can I manage all this? Well, EKS distro is a perfect platform for deploying and managing all these microservices in a really scalable and reliable way. You can containerize each of your microservices, deploy them as individual pods, and then scale them independently as needed.

Chris 3:03
So it brings like, order, yeah, to order to that chaos, the chaos. Yeah, I like it exactly. Okay, so that's one example, right? Yeah, we've got lots of microservices we're trying to like contain the madness, yeah, what about like, if a company has like, an existing Kubernetes workload, and they're like, We need to get this over to AWS. Oh,

Kelly 3:26
yeah, that's another common use case, okay, migrating existing workloads to AWS, okay? And because EKS distro is built on that same open source Kubernetes, it makes moving your applications over so much simpler.

Chris 3:40
Okay, so less refactoring, less changes exactly, okay, so that makes a ton of sense as well. Takes away those headaches. It does. It does. That's

Kelly 3:46
right, all right. So

Chris 3:47
let's dig into the technical bits. Now let's do it like, what are some of the features? What are some of the benefits? Okay, what makes EKS distro stand out?

Kelly 3:54
So one of the biggest advantages is upstream compatibility, okay? And so this basically means you're always running the latest, most secure version of Kubernetes. Okay? Because EKS distro releases are based on specific Kubernetes versions, you know exactly what you're getting, right? You can be confident that you're up to date with all the latest features and security patches, so

Chris 4:17
you're not having to, like, manage all these Kubernetes updates, right? Exactly. EKS distro is handling that. For us, EKS

Kelly 4:22
distro is taking care of that. Oh, I like that. Okay. And speaking of security, okay, another major benefit is automatic security patching. Okay, so AWS takes care of patching your Kubernetes cluster. For us, you don't have to do all that manual updating, right? So this ensures that your environment is protected against the latest vulnerabilities, yeah, which is a huge relief, right? It is huge relief for any cloud engineer out there,

Chris 4:47
saves time, saves like, stress and worry,

Kelly 4:51
absolutely okay. What

Chris 4:53
about integration with other AWS services? Oh, that's

Kelly 4:56
a great question, like,

Chris 4:57
does it play nice with the rest of the AWS ecosystem? System. It

Kelly 5:00
absolutely does, okay? It integrates seamlessly with those core AWS services. You know you're thinking EC2, VPC, IAM, load balancers, all that good stuff. It's not just this isolated service, okay? It's part of that larger AWS ecosystem.

Chris 5:19
So you can really take advantage of all the other of all the other tools, yeah, services that AWS offers, I like, I like it. Okay, it's right. This is sounding pretty good so far. It is. What are some of the maybe not downsides, but some of the like, limitations or trails, sure.

Kelly 5:35
I mean, so while it offers a lot of benefits, it's important to understand that it might offer slightly less customization compared to self managed Kubernetes, okay, right? So if you really, really need that granular control over every single aspect of your environment, then you know maybe EKS distro isn't the right fit for you, okay, but for most use cases, right? The benefits, like we talked about the simplified operations, the AWS integration, right? That really outweighs this limitation. It's all about choosing the right tool. Okay,

Chris 6:08
that makes sense for the job, all right. So I know a lot of our listeners out there are really focused on getting their AWS certs. So let's switch gears and talk about exam prep. Oh, like, if EKS distro pops up on the exam. What kind of questions should they be ready for?

Kelly 6:25
So you're likely to see scenario based questions that really test your understanding of those EKS distro features and how they can apply to real world situations. Okay, for example, you might see something like a company needs to deploy a highly available Kubernetes cluster on AWS, but they want to keep their operational overhead to an absolute minimum. What EKS distro feature would best meet this requirement? Okay,

Chris 6:52
so it's not just about memorizing facts. It's like how to actually apply it solve the problem exactly.

Kelly 6:57
So let's walk through a few example questions and answers so you can really get a feel for what to expect. Okay, remember understanding that why behind the technology is key to acing these exams. Okay, sounds good. All right. You ready to test your knowledge? I'm ready. Let's do it. All right. So let's jump into that first scenario that I mentioned, the company that needs to deploy a highly available Kubernetes cluster, right on AWS, yeah, but they also want to keep that operational overhead to a minimum, yeah. What EKS distro feature comes to mind?

Chris 7:28
High availability and minimal overhead. Okay, well, we talked about how EKS distro really streamlines a lot of the operations, right? And, I mean, I'm thinking when we want to minimize overhead in Kubernetes, we're talking AWS fargate, right? Isn't that all about running containers without managing servers?

Kelly 7:50
You got it? AWS fargate is the perfect fit here. It lets you run your Kubernetes cluster in a serverless fashion, right? So you don't have to provision or manage any EC2 instances,

Chris 8:02
right? That really reduces that operational overhead exactly, and then, of course, deploying it across multiple availability zones,

Kelly 8:07
that gets us that high availability. That's right. Okay, so it really ticks all the boxes. Serverless

Chris 8:13
with fargate gives us both. That's awesome. There you go. All right, let's try another one. Let's do it. What if a company needs to make absolutely sure their EKS distro cluster is always running the latest security patches. Okay, how would they handle that?

Kelly 8:28
So this one goes back to one of the core benefits that we were talking about earlier, right? Automatic security patches. Yeah, I was just thinking that, you know, with EKS distro, AWS takes care of patching your cluster for you, right? You don't have to manually update everything. Okay? So this just makes sure that your environment's always protected against the latest threats.

Chris 8:46
So in this case, they just rely on those, like built in EKS distro security updates. Rely

Kelly 8:51
on that automatic patching. Okay, awesome. It's really there to simplify things. Yeah, it

Chris 8:56
really is. I'm like, I'm noticing a theme here. Yes, like, EKS distro just kind of takes care of a lot of stuff.

Kelly 9:03
It really does. And these examples, it highlights a really important point, I think, when you're preparing for these AWS exams, okay, it's not just about memorizing a bunch of facts, right? It's about truly understanding the underlying concepts, how those concepts can be applied to solve those real world solutions? Yeah, you know that's what's really going to help you succeed. Totally.

Chris 9:25
Yeah. It's like, it's one thing to know the facts, right, but it's another to be able to apply them. Yeah, apply them exactly. Okay. Let's do one more scenario. Okay, what if we have a company and they need tight control over the specific Kubernetes versions that are running okay in their EKS distro clusters, right? So maybe they have, like, internal policies. Maybe they have to, you know, be in sync with some other systems. How can they make sure they're always using the exact version they need? That's

Kelly 9:57
a great question. And this goes back to that course. Strength of EKS distro and its relationship with upstream Kubernetes. Okay, remember, each EKS distro release, right, is based on a specific Kubernetes version. Oh, right,

Chris 10:10
right. I remember you saying that earlier, yes. So they just choose the one they need

Kelly 10:13
exactly. Okay, so each EKS distro release clearly states which Kubernetes version it's built on. So they can just select the appropriate release and know that they're running the version that meets their needs, like choosing your flavor, exactly. Awesome. Okay, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And then they don't have to worry about, you know, right, being accidentally upgraded right, to a newer version, right?

Chris 10:38
Yeah, that's great. So these craxes questions are super valuable, absolutely. I think it really shows how, you know, EKS distro can solve real world challenges, yes. And it also shows how, like just knowing those core concepts right are so important to the exam, that's right. Okay, cool.

Kelly 10:57
Now, before we wrap up, I want to leave you with one final thought to ponder. Okay, while EKS distro makes running Kubernetes on AWS right a breeze, there are other managed Kubernetes services out there. Oh, yeah, you got Google Kubernetes engine, Azure, Kubernetes service. So I want you to think about, how do these compare to EKS distro?

Chris 11:20
Yeah, that's a really great question to think about. Like, yeah, they all have their own kind of strengths and weaknesses, right? And it really depends. Like, are you all in on AWS, or are you multi cloud Exactly? And like, How much control do you need over the underlying infrastructure? That's right. So that's where you know your skills as a cloud engineer? Yeah, exactly like you got to be able to evaluate the options. You got to know the trade offs That's right, and choose the service that best meets the needs, choose

Kelly 11:49
the right tool for the job. Yeah, you wouldn't use a hammer to screw in a light bulb. Yeah?

Chris 11:54
Exactly. Okay, so for our listeners who are interested in learning more about EKS distro, yeah, and maybe, you know, comparing it to some of these other services, where would you suggest they go?

Kelly 12:06
Well, the AWS documentation is always a fantastic starting point, yeah, always, always,

Chris 12:12
always check the docs right?

Kelly 12:13
It's really detailed. Provides a comprehensive overview of all the features, the capabilities, and

Chris 12:19
they have those white papers too? Oh yeah. Those are great. The white papers really kind of go deep into specific use cases, absolutely. So those are great, and

Kelly 12:27
they often have insights from real world deployments as well. Yeah, for sure. So those are definitely worth checking out.

Chris 12:35
Now some people out there are more hands on learners, yeah, like, how do I actually do this, right? Yeah. What would you recommend? So,

Kelly 12:41
you know, there's tons of tutorials, okay, and workshops available online that will guide you, okay, through setting up and using EKS distro in a practical

Chris 12:52
way. And of course, there's always the AWS community, right? Oh, the

Kelly 12:55
community's fantastic.

Chris 12:56
Forums, the blogs and other social

Kelly 12:58
media groups, yeah, all that stuff. It's all filled with experts, enthusiasts, yeah, just tons of people willing to share their knowledge and experiences. Yeah,

Chris 13:08
it's one of the best things about the cloud community, I think, like, everyone's so willing to, like, share and help each other.

Kelly 13:14
It's all about collaboration. Yeah, I love that learning from each other. That's awesome,

Chris 13:18
right? Well, you know, I think it's important to remember, right? Like the cloud, it's always changing, always so it's like a never ending journey. That's right? You know, there's always something new to learn, there's always a new challenge, there's always, like, a new level of expertise. Absolutely, it never ends, does it? It never ends? Yeah, it really is a constantly evolving landscape. It is. Well, hey everyone, thanks for joining us for this deep dive into Amazon EKS distro. Yeah, thanks for listening. We hope you learned a ton about, you know what it is, yeah, why it matters. The

Kelly 13:51
why is always important, the

Chris 13:53
why, right, yeah, and how it can really help you, yeah, you know, in your cloud journey, absolutely, and especially if you are studying for those AWS exams. Yeah, good luck out there. Yeah, good luck. And remember, you know,

Kelly 14:06
not just about those facts. Really understand the concept, the concepts, how to apply them,

Chris 14:10
how to solve the problem. Yeah, that's right, all right. So we'll have links to all the resources that we mentioned in the show notes. Yeah, definitely check those out so you can keep learning that's right. Awesome. Well, until next time, happy clouding. Everyone.

Kelly 14:23
Happy clouding. Bye.