AWS EKS Deployment

Deploy GEMVC to Amazon Kubernetes Service with auto-scaling and high availability

Documentation / Getting Started / AWS EKS

Deploy GEMVC to AWS EKS

Complete guide for deploying a containerized GEMVC application to Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) for high availability and automatic scaling.

AWS EKS

Kubernetes

Auto-Scaling

High Availability

Core Concepts

Kubernetes (K8s): Container orchestration platform for automated deployment and scaling
AWS EKS: Managed Kubernetes service - AWS manages the control plane
kubectl: CLI tool for interacting with Kubernetes clusters
Manifests: YAML files describing deployments, services, and ingress

Part 1: Prerequisites

Step 1: Install AWS CLI

AWS CLI Setup

# Configure AWS credentials
aws configure

# Enter your:
# - AWS Access Key ID
# - AWS Secret Access Key
# - Default region (e.g., us-east-1)
# - Default output format (json)

Step 2: Install kubectl

Install kubectl

# Linux
curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

# Verify
kubectl version --client

Step 3: Install eksctl

Install eksctl

curl --silent --location "https://github.com/weaveworks/eksctl/releases/latest/download/eksctl_$(uname -s)_amd64.tar.gz" | tar xz -C /tmp
sudo mv /tmp/eksctl /usr/local/bin

# Verify
eksctl version

Part 2: Create EKS Cluster

Step 4: Provision Cluster

info: This process takes 15-20 minutes. AWS is provisioning the Kubernetes control plane and worker nodes.

Create EKS Cluster

eksctl create cluster \
  --name gemvc-cluster \
  --region us-east-1 \
  --version 1.29 \
  --nodegroup-name standard-workers \
  --node-type t3.medium \
  --nodes 2 \
  --nodes-min 1 \
  --nodes-max 3 \
  --managed

Verify Nodes

# Verify cluster is ready
kubectl get nodes

Part 3: Kubernetes Manifests

Create a k8s/ folder with these files:

Step 5: deployment.yaml

k8s/deployment.yaml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: gemvc-app-deployment
spec:
  replicas: 2  # High availability
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: gemvc-app
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: gemvc-app
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: gemvc-app
        image: your-dockerhub/gemvc-api:latest
        ports:
        - containerPort: 9501  # OpenSwoole port
        envFrom:
        - secretRef:
            name: gemvc-app-secrets

Step 6: Create Secrets

Tip: Never commit .env files to Git! Use Kubernetes Secrets for sensitive data.

.env (local only)

# Create .env file locally (NOT in Git!)
APP_ENV=production
DB_HOST=production-db.internal
DB_USER=prod_user
DB_PASSWORD=your-secure-password
TOKEN_SECRET=your-jwt-secret-key

Create Secret

# Create Kubernetes secret from .env
kubectl create secret generic gemvc-app-secrets --from-env-file=.env

Step 7: service.yaml

k8s/service.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: gemvc-app-service
spec:
  selector:
    app: gemvc-app
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 9501
  type: NodePort

Step 8: ingress.yaml

info: You need an SSL certificate in AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) for your domain.

k8s/ingress.yaml

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: gemvc-app-ingress
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/ingress.class: alb
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/scheme: internet-facing
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/target-type: ip
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/certificate-arn: arn:aws:acm:REGION:ACCOUNT:certificate/ID
spec:
  rules:
    - host: api.your-domain.com
      http:
        paths:
          - path: /
            pathType: Prefix
            backend:
              service:
                name: gemvc-app-service
                port:
                  number: 80

Part 4: Deploy Application

Step 9: Install AWS Load Balancer Controller

Follow the official AWS guide to install the ALB Controller.

Step 10: Apply Manifests

Deploy to EKS

# Deploy application
kubectl apply -f k8s/deployment.yaml

# Create service
kubectl apply -f k8s/service.yaml

# Create load balancer
kubectl apply -f k8s/ingress.yaml

Step 11: Verify Deployment

Verify Deployment

# Check pods are running
kubectl get pods

# Get load balancer URL
kubectl get ingress gemvc-app-ingress

# Look for ADDRESS column - point your DNS CNAME to this

Part 5: Updates (Zero Downtime)

Zero-Downtime Update

# Update image tag in deployment.yaml, then:
kubectl apply -f k8s/deployment.yaml

# Kubernetes performs rolling update automatically!

Rolling Updates: Kubernetes creates new pods with the updated image and gracefully terminates old ones - zero downtime!

Deployment Checklist

AWS CLI configured with credentials
kubectl and eksctl installed
EKS cluster created and nodes ready
Kubernetes secrets created from .env
SSL certificate in ACM
DNS CNAME pointing to ALB

Next Steps

Google Cloud GKE Performance Guide Security Guide