How to Connect to an Amazon EKS Cluster from Your Local Machine

In this blog, we’ll cover the step-by-step process of connecting to an Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) cluster from your local machine. Whether you’re new to Kubernetes or experienced in working with cloud services, this guide will help you set up your local environment for managing EKS clusters effectively.

Prerequisites

Before we dive in, make sure your machine has the following:

1. AWS CLI: Install the AWS Command Line Interface from the official AWS CLI installation guide. Follow the steps based on your operating system (Linux, macOS, or Windows).
2. kubectl: Install kubectl, the Kubernetes command-line tool. Refer to Kubernetes installation instructions for your system.
3. Refer to the Creating an EKS Cluster tutorial if you haven’t created one yet.

Steps to Connect to the EKS Cluster

Step 1: Configure the AWS CLI

To connect your local machine to EKS, you need to authenticate your AWS CLI with proper access.

1. Log in to the AWS Management Console as the user who created the EKS cluster.
2. Navigate to IAM → Users → Security Credentials and generate a new set of Access Keys. Save the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key securely.
3. Run the following command in your terminal: