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Custom AMI Support

With the 0.1.2 release we have introduced the --node-ami flag for use when creating a cluster. This enables a number of advanced use cases such as using a custom AMI or querying AWS in realtime to determine which AMI to use (non-GPU and GPU instances).

The --node-ami can take the AMI image id for an image to explicitly use. It also can take the following 'special' keywords:

Keyword Description
static Indicates that the AMI images ids embedded into eksctl should be used. This relates to the static resolvers.
auto Indicates that the AMI to use for the nodes should be found by querying AWS EC2. This relates to the auto resolver.
auto-ssm Indicates that the AMI to use for the nodes should be found by querying AWS SSM Parameter Store.

If, for example, AWS release a new version of the EKS node AMIs and a new version of eksctl hasn't been released you can use the latest AMI by doing the following:

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eksctl create cluster --node-ami=auto

With the 0.1.9 release we have introduced the --node-ami-family flag for use when creating the cluster. This makes it possible to choose between different officially supported EKS AMI families.

The --node-ami-family can take following keywords:

Keyword Description
AmazonLinux2 Indicates that the EKS AMI image based on Amazon Linux 2 should be used (default).
Ubuntu1804 Indicates that the EKS AMI image based on Ubuntu 18.04 should be used.
WindowsServer2019FullContainer Indicates that the EKS AMI image based on Windows Server 2019 Full Container should be used.
WindowsServer2019CoreContainer Indicates that the EKS AMI image based on Windows Server 2019 Core Container should be used.