AWS

Kubernetes is a popular tool for managing containerized applications. However, there are a few misunderstandings about how it works. One of the most common misconceptions concerns port exposure in Kubernetes pods. This article explains the truth about port exposure in Kubernetes. The Misconception Like many newcomers to Kubernetes, I initially thought that only the ports specified in the pod manifest would be exposed and accessible. The ports field in the YAML file seemed to be a natural place to define which ports were to be opened, in the same way that a traditional firewall is configured. This assumption led me to believe that any port not explicitly declared would be closed and unreachable. ...

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a managed Kubernetes service that simplifies the process of deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications. To ensure optimal functionality and performance, EKS relies on several essential add-ons. In this article, we’ll explore three crucial EKS add-ons: AWS VPC CNI , Kube-proxy , and CoreDNS. We’ll delve into what they are, how they work, why they’re indispensable for your EKS cluster, and when they became required components. ...

In the world of AWS networking, securing and optimizing communication between your VPC resources and AWS services is crucial. This is where AWS VPC Endpoints come into play — a feature that allows you to privately connect your VPC to supported AWS services without requiring an internet gateway, NAT device, VPN connection, or AWS Direct Connect. This article explains what VPC Endpoints are, their types, their purpose, and how to configure them in your AWS environment. ...

In the world of Kubernetes and AWS, managing access to AWS resources from your Kubernetes cluster can be tricky. That’s where AWS IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA) comes in — a feature that helps bridge the gap between Kubernetes and AWS, providing a secure and efficient way to grant AWS permissions to your Kubernetes workloads. This article explains what IRSA is, why it’s important and how to configure it in your Amazon EKS cluster. ...

OpenTofu is a new open source tool for Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) management across multiple cloud providers, created by the community following the terraform licence change by HashiCorp. With the recent v1.7.0 release, OpenTofu now supports state file encryption. This guide explains how to configure OpenTofu to manage AWS resources with encrypted status files stored on a remote AWS S3 buckets backend using AWS Key Management Service (KMS). 1 — Why State Encryption: State encryption is a very important security feature for infrastructure-as- code tools such as Terraform and OpenTofu. Initially, these tools stored the entire state file, including potentially sensitive access keys, passwords and resource details, in the clear in back-end storage such as S3 buckets or local files. This meant that anyone able to access the status file could see all the confidential data, creating a significant risk if the status file was compromised. Encrypting the contents of the status file protects this sensitive information from unauthorized access. Without encryption, infrastructure credentials and provisioning secrets could be exposed, allowing malicious individuals to make unwanted changes or gain access to private systems and data. ...