aws-load-balancer-controller

AWS Load Balancer Controller

AWS Load Balancer controller Helm chart for Kubernetes

TL;DR:

helm repo add eks https://aws.github.io/eks-charts
# If using IAM Roles for service account install as follows -  NOTE: you need to specify both of the chart values `serviceAccount.create=false` and `serviceAccount.name=aws-load-balancer-controller`
helm install aws-load-balancer-controller eks/aws-load-balancer-controller --set clusterName=my-cluster -n kube-system --set serviceAccount.create=false --set serviceAccount.name=aws-load-balancer-controller
# If not using IAM Roles for service account
helm install aws-load-balancer-controller eks/aws-load-balancer-controller --set clusterName=my-cluster -n kube-system

Introduction

AWS Load Balancer controller manages the following AWS resources

• Application Load Balancers to satisfy Kubernetes ingress objects
• Network Load Balancers to satisfy Kubernetes service objects of type LoadBalancer with appropriate annotations

Security updates

Note: Deployed chart does not receive security updates automatically. You need to manually upgrade to a newer chart.

Prerequisites

• Kubernetes >= 1.16 for ALB
• Kubernetes >= 1.16 for NLB IP/Instance using Service type NodePort
• Kubernetes >= v1.20 or EKS >= 1.16 or the following patch releases for Service type LoadBalancer
  • 1.18.18+ for 1.18
  • 1.19.10+ for 1.19
• IAM permissions

The controller runs on the worker nodes, so it needs access to the AWS ALB/NLB resources via IAM permissions. The IAM permissions can either be setup via IAM roles for ServiceAccount or can be attached directly to the worker node IAM roles.

Setup IAM for ServiceAccount

1. Create IAM OIDC provider

   eksctl utils associate-iam-oidc-provider \
       --region <aws-region> \
       --cluster <your-cluster-name> \
       --approve
   

2. Download IAM policy for the AWS Load Balancer Controller

   curl -o iam-policy.json https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/main/docs/install/iam_policy.json
   

3. Create an IAM policy called AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy

   aws iam create-policy \
       --policy-name AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy \
       --policy-document file://iam-policy.json
   

   Take note of the policy ARN that is returned

4. Create a IAM role and ServiceAccount for the Load Balancer controller, use the ARN from the step above

   eksctl create iamserviceaccount \
   --cluster=<cluster-name> \
   --namespace=kube-system \
   --name=aws-load-balancer-controller \
   --attach-policy-arn=arn:aws:iam::<AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>:policy/AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy \
   --approve
   

Setup IAM manually

If not setting up IAM for ServiceAccount, apply the IAM policies from the following URL at minimum.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-alb-ingress-controller/main/docs/install/iam_policy.json

Upgrading from ALB ingress controller

If migrating from ALB ingress controller, grant additional IAM permissions.

Upgrading from AWS Load Balancer controller v2.1.3 and earlier

• Additional IAM permissions required, ensure you have granted the required IAM permissions.
• CRDs need to be updated as follows

kubectl apply -k "github.com/aws/eks-charts/stable/aws-load-balancer-controller//crds?ref=master"

• you can run helm upgrade without uninstalling the old chart completely

Installing the Chart

Note: You need to uninstall aws-alb-ingress-controller. Please refer to the upgrade section below before you proceed.

Add the EKS repository to Helm:

helm repo add eks https://aws.github.io/eks-charts

Install the TargetGroupBinding CRDs:

kubectl apply -k "github.com/aws/eks-charts/stable/aws-load-balancer-controller//crds?ref=master"

Install the AWS Load Balancer controller, if using iamserviceaccount

# NOTE: The clusterName value must be set either via the values.yaml or the Helm command line. The <k8s-cluster-name> in the command
# below should be replaced with name of your k8s cluster before running it.
helm upgrade -i aws-load-balancer-controller eks/aws-load-balancer-controller -n kube-system --set clusterName=<k8s-cluster-name> --set serviceAccount.create=false --set serviceAccount.name=aws-load-balancer-controller

Install the AWS Load Balancer controller, if not using iamserviceaccount

helm upgrade -i aws-load-balancer-controller eks/aws-load-balancer-controller -n kube-system --set clusterName=<k8s-cluster-name>

Upgrade

The new controller is backwards compatible with the existing ingress objects. However, it will not coexist with the older aws-alb-ingress-controller. The old controller must be uninstalled completely before installing the new version.

Kubectl installation

If you had installed the previous version via kubectl, uninstall as follows

$ kubectl delete deployment -n kube-system alb-ingress-controller
# Find the version of the current controller
$ kubectl describe deployment  -n kube-system  alb-ingress-controller |grep Image
      Image:      docker.io/amazon/aws-alb-ingress-controller:v1.1.8
# In this case, the version is v1.1.8, the rbac roles can be removed as follows
$ kubectl delete -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-alb-ingress-controller/v1.1.8/docs/examples/rbac-role.yaml

Helm installation

If you had installed the incubator/aws-alb-ingress-controller Helm chart, uninstall as follows

# NOTE: If installed under a different chart name and namespace, please specify as appropriate
$ helm delete aws-alb-ingress-controller -n kube-system

If you had installed the 0.1.x version of eks-charts/aws-load-balancer-controller chart earlier, the upgrade to chart version 1.0.0 will not work due to incompatibility of the webhook api version, uninstall as follows

$ helm delete aws-load-balancer-controller -n kube-system

Uninstalling the Chart

helm delete aws-load-balancer-controller -n kube-system

HA configuration

Chart release v1.2.0 and later enables high availability configuration by default.

• The default number of replicas is 2. You can pass--set replicaCount=1 flag during chart installation to disable this. Due to leader election, only one controller will actively reconcile resources.
• The default priority class for the controller pods is system-cluster-critical
• Soft pod anti-affinity is enabled for controller pods with topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname if custom affinity is not configured
• Pod disruption budget (PDB) has not been set by default. If you plan on running at least 2 controller pods, you can pass --set podDisruptionBudget.maxUnavailable=1 flag during chart installation

Configuration

The following tables lists the configurable parameters of the chart and their default values. The default values set by the application itself can be confirmed here.

Parameter	Description	Default
image.repository	image repository	602401143452.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/amazon/aws-load-balancer-controller
image.tag	image tag	<VERSION>
image.pullPolicy	image pull policy	IfNotPresent
clusterName	Kubernetes cluster name	None
securityContext	Set to security context for pod	{}
resources	Controller pod resource requests & limits	{}
priorityClassName	Controller pod priority class	system-cluster-critical
nodeSelector	Node labels for controller pod assignment	{}
tolerations	Controller pod toleration for taints	{}
affinity	Affinity for pod assignment	{}
podAnnotations	Annotations to add to each pod	{}
podLabels	Labels to add to each pod	{}
rbac.create	if true, create and use RBAC resources	true
serviceAccount.annotations	optional annotations to add to service account	None
serviceAccount.automountServiceAccountToken	Automount API credentials for a Service Account	true
serviceAccount.create	If true, create a new service account	true
serviceAccount.name	Service account to be used	None
terminationGracePeriodSeconds	Time period for controller pod to do a graceful shutdown	10
ingressClass	The ingress class to satisfy	alb
region	The AWS region for the kubernetes cluster	None
vpcId	The VPC ID for the Kubernetes cluster	None
awsMaxRetries	Maximum retries for AWS APIs	None
enablePodReadinessGateInject	If enabled, targetHealth readiness gate will get injected to the pod spec for the matching endpoint pods	None
enableShield	Enable Shield addon for ALB	None
enableWaf	Enable WAF addon for ALB	None
enableWafv2	Enable WAF V2 addon for ALB	None
ingressMaxConcurrentReconciles	Maximum number of concurrently running reconcile loops for ingress	None
logLevel	Set the controller log level - info, debug	None
metricsBindAddr	The address the metric endpoint binds to	""
webhookBindPort	The TCP port the Webhook server binds to	None
serviceMaxConcurrentReconciles	Maximum number of concurrently running reconcile loops for service	None
targetgroupbindingMaxConcurrentReconciles	Maximum number of concurrently running reconcile loops for targetGroupBinding	None
targetgroupbindingMaxExponentialBackoffDelay	Maximum duration of exponential backoff for targetGroupBinding reconcile failures	None
syncPeriod	Period at which the controller forces the repopulation of its local object stores	None
watchNamespace	Namespace the controller watches for updates to Kubernetes objects, If empty, all namespaces are watched	None
disableIngressClassAnnotation	Disables the usage of kubernetes.io/ingress.class annotation	None
disableIngressGroupNameAnnotation	Disables the usage of alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/group.name annotation	None
defaultSSLPolicy	Specifies the default SSL policy to use for HTTPS or TLS listeners	None
externalManagedTags	Specifies the list of tag keys on AWS resources that are managed externally	[]
livenessProbe	Liveness probe settings for the controller	(see values.yaml)
env	Environment variables to set for aws-load-balancer-controller pod	None
hostNetwork	If true, use hostNetwork	false
extraVolumeMounts	Extra volume mounts for the pod	[]
extraVolumes	Extra volumes for the pod	[]
defaultTags	Default tags to apply to all AWS resources managed by this controller	{}
replicaCount	Number of controller pods to run, only one will be active due to leader election	2
podDisruptionBudget	Limit the disruption for controller pods. Require at least 2 controller replicas and 3 worker nodes	{}
udpateStrategy	Defines the update strategy for the deployment	{}