description Amazon EKS Distro Overview
Amazon EKS Distro is a free, open-source Kubernetes distribution built from upstream code and optimized for running on Amazon Linux and other environments, providing consistent tooling across clusters.
help Amazon EKS Distro FAQ
What is the difference between Amazon EKS Distro and Amazon EKS?
Amazon EKS is a fully managed Kubernetes service where AWS operates the control plane for you, while Amazon EKS Distro is the open-source distribution of the same Kubernetes software that AWS uses to run EKS. EKS Distro lets you run that exact build of Kubernetes on your own infrastructure without paying for the managed control plane.
Is Amazon EKS Distro free to use?
Yes, Amazon EKS Distro is free and open source, available on GitHub. You still pay for your own compute, storage, and networking infrastructure, but there is no per-cluster control plane fee like the one charged by managed Amazon EKS.
Can I run Amazon EKS Distro on my own on-premises servers?
Yes, EKS Distro is designed to run on any infrastructure including on-premises data centers, other cloud providers, and edge environments. It bundles the same upstream Kubernetes components and dependencies that AWS uses in its managed EKS service.
Does Amazon EKS Distro include the same Kubernetes tooling as managed EKS?
EKS Distro includes the core Kubernetes binaries—kube-apiserver, kubelet, kube-controller-manager, etcd, and CNI plugins—at the same versions AWS tests for EKS. However, it does not include AWS-specific managed add-ons like the EKS console or automated upgrade management; you handle cluster lifecycle yourself.
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