GKE on AWS runs GKE clusters on AWS infrastructure rather than creating EKS clusters. AWS console users see admin and user cluster nodes as individual EC2 instances, while Anthos distinguishes the responsibilities associated with each cluster type. section 5.2.2 section 10.2
Use the architecture diagram to relate the AWS load balancer, EC2 virtual machines, admin cluster, user cluster, and management components. section 5.2.2
Key deployment and operations characteristics include:
- Install clusters with gcloud container aws clusters create; Terraform users can generate infrastructure code through anthos-gke. section 5.2.2
- Provision infrastructure declaratively through the Terraform AWS provider, including load balancers and EC2 virtual machines. section 5.2.2
- Use node pools to support different machine sizes within a cluster and define minimum and maximum node counts. section 5.2.2
- Keep administrative workloads away from admin clusters, which exist to monitor and administer user clusters. section 5.2
Creating and managing a cluster
A typical workflow obtains an AWS KMS key, generates or applies Terraform-backed infrastructure, initializes the management service, retrieves credentials, and edits AWSCluster or AWSNodePool resources with kubectl. Management operations require connecting to the deployed bastion host. section 5.2.2
