Import AWS EKS Cluster to Simplismart Platform

Overview

This guide walks you through the process of importing an existing AWS EKS cluster into the Simplismart platform. By importing your cluster, you can leverage Simplismart’s deployment, monitoring, and scaling capabilities with your existing infrastructure.

Coming Soon: Warmpool functionality and automatic node group creation are currently only available for clusters created directly on the Simplismart platform.In an upcoming release, these features will be extended to imported clusters. You’ll be able to provide limited IAM access, and Simplismart will manage warmpool and node group creation automatically, just like it does for Simplismart-created clusters.

Prerequisites

Before importing your cluster, ensure you have the following:

EKS Cluster

You need an AWS EKS cluster. If you don’t already have one, follow the Create AWS EKS Cluster guide.

Node Group

Your cluster must have at least one node group with minimum 1 vCPU and the required label (see below). For auxiliary node groups where Simplismart cluster tools will be installed, use a minimum machine size of m6a.xlarge.

Node Group Label

All nodes in your cluster must have the required label. To add a label, navigate to Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service > Clusters > <cluster_name> > <node_group> > edit and add a label in the format given below:

simplismart.ai/node-group-name: <node-group-name>

This label is essential for the Simplismart platform to identify and manage your nodes correctly.

If you are importing a cluster, you need to create a node group yourself on AWS. Only then you can register it on the Simplismart platform. See the Create AWS EKS Cluster guide for detailed instructions on creating node groups with the required label.

Kubernetes Credentials

Configure your Kubernetes credentials as a secret in Simplismart to authenticate with your AWS EKS Cluster. AWS supports both token-based and certificate-based authentication. This guide covers token-based authentication using three different approaches.

Important Timing Constraint: AWS EKS tokens have a 15-minute validity period. Since cluster import on Simplismart takes approximately 10 minutes, you must generate the kubeconfig credentials and start the import process within 5 minutes. If the token expires during import, the cluster import will fail with an authentication error. If this happens, simply regenerate the credentials and retry the import.

Method 1: Using AWS CLI

This method uses the AWS CLI to generate kubeconfig credentials programmatically.

Configure AWS CLI

Ensure you have AWS CLI installed and configured with appropriate credentials:

aws configure

Enter your AWS Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, default region, and output format when prompted.

Update Kubeconfig

Update your local kubeconfig file to include the EKS cluster credentials:

aws eks update-kubeconfig --region <region> --name <cluster-name>

Replace <region> with your AWS region (e.g., us-east-1) and <cluster-name> with your EKS cluster name.This command will add the cluster context to your ~/.kube/config file.

Verify Connection

Test the connection to your cluster:

kubectl get nodes

If successful, you should see a list of nodes in your cluster.

Extract Kubeconfig

Extract the kubeconfig content to add as a secret in Simplismart:

cat ~/.kube/config

Copy the entire output. You’ll use this in the next step.

Add Secret in Simplismart

Go to the Secrets section in Simplismart and:

Click on the Kubernetes tab
Add a new secret with the kubeconfig content you copied
Follow the detailed configuration instructions in the Secrets documentation

Method 2: Using AWS Management Console

This method uses the AWS Management Console to retrieve cluster connection information and build the kubeconfig manually.

Navigate to EKS Cluster

Open the AWS Management Console
Go to Amazon EKS service
Select your cluster from the list

Get Cluster Endpoint and Certificate

In the cluster details page, note down the following:

API server endpoint: Found in the Configuration tab
Certificate authority data: Found in the Configuration tab (click “Show” to reveal)

Copy both values—you’ll need them to construct the kubeconfig.

Create Kubeconfig File

Create a kubeconfig file with the following structure:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Config
clusters:
- cluster:
    certificate-authority-data: <CERTIFICATE_AUTHORITY_DATA>
    server: <API_SERVER_ENDPOINT>
  name: <CLUSTER_NAME>
contexts:
- context:
    cluster: <CLUSTER_NAME>
    user: <CLUSTER_NAME>
  name: <CLUSTER_NAME>
current-context: <CLUSTER_NAME>
users:
- name: <CLUSTER_NAME>
  user:
    exec:
      apiVersion: client.authentication.k8s.io/v1beta1
      command: aws
      args:
        - eks
        - get-token
        - --cluster-name
        - <CLUSTER_NAME>
        - --region
        - <REGION>

Replace the placeholders:

<CERTIFICATE_AUTHORITY_DATA>: Certificate authority data from Step 2
<API_SERVER_ENDPOINT>: API server endpoint from Step 2
<CLUSTER_NAME>: Your EKS cluster name
<REGION>: Your AWS region (e.g., us-east-1)

Verify Configuration

Save the kubeconfig file and test the connection:

export KUBECONFIG=/path/to/your/kubeconfig
kubectl get nodes

If successful, you should see a list of nodes in your cluster.

Add Secret in Simplismart

Go to the Secrets section in Simplismart and:

Click on the Kubernetes tab
Add a new secret with the kubeconfig content you created
Follow the detailed configuration instructions in the Secrets documentation

Method 3: Using eksctl

This method uses eksctl, a simple CLI tool for creating and managing EKS clusters.

Install eksctl

If you haven’t installed eksctl yet, follow the eksctl installation guide.For macOS:

brew tap weaveworks/tap
brew install weaveworks/tap/eksctl

For Linux:

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

Generate Kubeconfig

Use eksctl to write the cluster credentials to your kubeconfig:

eksctl utils write-kubeconfig --cluster <cluster-name> --region <region>

Replace <cluster-name> with your EKS cluster name and <region> with your AWS region.This will automatically update your ~/.kube/config file.

Verify Connection

Test the connection to your cluster:

kubectl get nodes

If successful, you should see a list of nodes in your cluster.

Extract Kubeconfig

Extract the kubeconfig content:

cat ~/.kube/config

Copy the entire output.

Add Secret in Simplismart

Go to the Secrets section in Simplismart and:

Click on the Kubernetes tab
Add a new secret with the kubeconfig content you copied
Follow the detailed configuration instructions in the Secrets documentation

For production environments, it’s recommended to create a dedicated IAM role with minimal required permissions for Simplismart access, rather than using admin credentials.

Import Cluster

Enter Basic Details

Provide the following information about your cluster:

Field	Description
Cluster Name	A unique name to identify your cluster in the Simplismart platform
Cloud Provider	Select AWS as your cloud provider
Secret	Select a secret to authenticate with AWS. See the Secrets section for configuration details
Region	The AWS region where your EKS cluster is deployed
Hosted Zone	The DNS hosted zone for your cluster. See Hosted Zone documentation
Environment	Select your environment type: Production, Development, Demo, or Custom
Custom Environment Description	Provide a description if you selected “Custom” environment

Configure Cluster Tools

Select the tools to install on your cluster during the import process. All tools shown below are mandatory for core cluster functionality.

Scaling Tools

Metrics Server

Collects basic pod and node resource usage (CPU/memory) to enable Kubernetes Horizontal Pod Autoscaling and efficient resource management.

Cluster Autoscaler

Automatically adds or removes nodes in your cluster based on workload demand, optimizing costs by scaling infrastructure dynamically.

Prometheus Adapter

The Prometheus Adapter is a fallback in case we want to switch to use HPA and scale based on number of requests or custom metrics.

KEDA

Our main event-driven autoscaler that scales applications based on workload activity (e.g., queue length, message count), improving performance and reducing costs during idle periods. It is required for scale to 0.

Observability Tools

Mimir

Long-term metrics storage system that provides reliable, scalable storage for time-series data, enabling historical analysis and trend monitoring.

Loki

Centralized log aggregation system that collects and stores logs from all applications, making it easy to search, filter, and debug issues across your cluster.

Promtail

Log shipping agent that collects logs from your applications and forwards them to Loki, making all logs searchable in the Simplismart platform.

Grafana Prometheus Stack

Complete monitoring solution providing dashboards, metrics collection, and alerting capabilities to monitor workload health and system performance.

DCGM Exporter

GPU monitoring tool that tracks NVIDIA GPU utilization, temperature, and health metrics, essential for optimizing AI/ML workloads.

Simplismart Agent

Simplismart’s internal monitoring agent that collects operational metrics and system health data like disk pressure, node readiness, degraded pod, etc for platform integration.

Configure your node groups to be managed by the Simplismart platform. Node group configuration allows you to manage your cluster resources based on workload types, hardware requirements, and scaling policies.Using the given configuration, Simplismart is able to intelligently manage the nodes and effectively distribute the resources.

Node Group Label

Provide the node group label you configured earlier in the Prerequisites section. This label allows Simplismart to identify and manage your node group.

You can register multiple node groups with different configurations to use your cluster resources effectively on the Simplismart platform.

Node Group Configuration

Enable Use Node Group Configuration to have Simplismart automatically allocates the resource during the deployment. If not selected, you need to provide node configuration every time you deploy.

Field	Description
Accelerator Type	Select either CPU or GPU based on your workload requirements
Accelerator Count	Number of accelerators (GPUs) per node
Min Node Count	Minimum number of nodes to maintain in this node group
Max Node Count	Maximum number of nodes allowed in this node group for autoscaling
CPU	Number of CPU cores per node
Memory	Memory allocation in GB per node

When this option is enabled, Simplismart will manage the specified node group in your EKS cluster based on the resource configuration provided. The node group must already exist in your cluster.

Auxiliary Node Group

Enable Mark as Auxiliary if this node group should be reserved for supporting workloads rather than primary AI/ML operations.Common use cases for auxiliary node groups:

Monitoring and logging services (refer to Step 2 for details)
Internal tooling and platform services

Add Tags (Optional)

Add custom tags to manage and identify your cluster for billing, cost allocation, and resource management. Tags will be auto-populated in the billing section as well as the event center for better tracking and visualization. Moreover, you can create environment tags for Testing, Staging or Production based on your requirements. Environment specific tags will help you in billing and how much each environment is generating the bills.Click Add Tag and provide key-value pairs as needed.

Post-Import Steps

After successfully importing your cluster, follow these steps to get started:

Verify Cluster Health

Check that the cluster status shows as “Success” in the Simplismart dashboard. Verify all cluster tools are running correctly.

Deploy Models

Start deploying AI/ML models to your imported cluster using the Simplismart platform.

Monitor Performance

Use the observability tools (Grafana, Prometheus, Loki) to monitor cluster health and performance metrics.

Bring Your Own Container

Deploy custom Docker containers to your cluster for custom models.

Deployment Capabilities

Current Support

Imported clusters currently support container-based deployments. You can deploy Docker/Depot containers with full integration into the Simplismart platform, including:

Monitoring via the observability stack (Grafana, Prometheus, Loki)
Auto-scaling via the scalability stack (Metrics Server, Cluster Autoscaler, KEDA)
Resource management and optimization

Coming Soon

In future releases, imported clusters will support:

Custom Helm Deployments

Full support for custom Helm chart deployments with complete lifecycle management. Your Helm deployments will be:

Fully monitored via the Simplismart observability stack
Fully scalable via the Simplismart scalability stack

Warmpool & Rapid Auto-scaling

Once warmpool support is enabled for imported clusters, you’ll benefit from:

Rapid auto-scaling for faster response to workload demands
Reduced cold-start times through pre-warmed resources
Same capabilities as clusters created directly on the Simplismart platform

This will enable the same rapid scaling performance you get with Simplismart-created clusters.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues during the cluster import process, please feel free to reach out to our support team at support@simplismart.ai.

Integrations

Flux Compilation

LLM Compilation

Cluster Management

Deployment Guides

Import AWS EKS Cluster to Simplismart Platform

Overview

Prerequisites

EKS Cluster

Node Group

Node Group Label

Kubernetes Credentials

Import Cluster

Scaling Tools

Observability Tools

Node Group Label

Node Group Configuration

Auxiliary Node Group

Post-Import Steps

Verify Cluster Health

Deploy Models

Monitor Performance

Bring Your Own Container

Deployment Capabilities

Current Support

Coming Soon

Troubleshooting

​Overview

​Prerequisites

​EKS Cluster

​Node Group

​Node Group Label

​Kubernetes Credentials

​Import Cluster

​Scaling Tools

​Observability Tools

​Node Group Label

​Node Group Configuration

​Auxiliary Node Group

​Post-Import Steps

Verify Cluster Health

Deploy Models

Monitor Performance

Bring Your Own Container

​Deployment Capabilities

​Current Support

​Coming Soon

​Troubleshooting

Overview

Prerequisites

EKS Cluster

Node Group

Node Group Label

Kubernetes Credentials

Import Cluster

Scaling Tools

Observability Tools

Node Group Label

Node Group Configuration

Auxiliary Node Group

Post-Import Steps

Deployment Capabilities

Current Support

Coming Soon

Troubleshooting