# Create an Amazon EKS cluster using a Rafay cluster manifest ## In this learning path - [Introduction](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/rafay-eks/) - [Set up Rafay and AWS access](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/rafay-eks/setup/) - [Create an Amazon EKS cluster using a Rafay cluster manifest](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/rafay-eks/cluster/) - [Deploy NGINX to the Amazon EKS cluster and clean up](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/rafay-eks/nginx/) - [Next Steps](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/rafay-eks/_next-steps/) ## Create the cluster manifest The Rafay platform uses a declarative YAML manifest to define your EKS cluster. Create a file named `demo-eks-graviton.yaml` with the following content: ```yaml apiVersion: infra.k8smgmt.io/v3 kind: Cluster metadata: # The name of the cluster name: demo-eks-graviton # The name of the project the cluster will be created in project: defaultproject spec: blueprintConfig: # The name of the blueprint the cluster will use name: minimal # The version of the blueprint the cluster will use version: latest # The name of the cloud credential that will be used to create the cluster cloudCredentials: aws-cloud-credential config: # The EKS addons that will be applied to the cluster addons: - name: kube-proxy version: latest - name: vpc-cni version: latest - name: coredns version: latest managedNodeGroups: # The AWS AMI family type the nodes will use - amiFamily: AmazonLinux2023 # The desired number of nodes that can run in the node group desiredCapacity: 1 iam: withAddonPolicies: # Enables the IAM policy for cluster autoscaler autoScaler: true # Allows for full ECR (Elastic Container Registry) access. This is useful for building, for example, a CI server that needs to push images to ECR imageBuilder: true # The Amazon EC2 instance type that will be used for the nodes instanceType: m7g.large # The maximum number of nodes that can run in the node group maxSize: 1 # The minimum number of nodes that can run in the node group minSize: 1 # The name of the node group that will be created in AWS name: graviton metadata: # The name of the cluster name: demo-eks-graviton # The AWS region the cluster will be created in region: us-east-1 # The tags that will be applied to the AWS cluster resources tags: email: [user@rafay.co](mailto:user@rafay.co) env: qa # The Kubernetes version that will be installed on the cluster version: latest vpc: # AutoAllocateIPV6 requests an IPv6 CIDR block with /56 prefix for the VPC autoAllocateIPv6: false clusterEndpoints: # Enables private access to the Kubernetes API server endpoints privateAccess: true # Enables public access to the Kubernetes API server endpoints publicAccess: false # The CIDR that will be used by the cluster VPC cidr: 192.168.0.0/16 type: aws-eks ``` Key fields to note: - `cloudCredentials` must exactly match the credential name you entered in the Rafay console. - `project` must be the project you attached the credential to. - `instanceType` must be a Graviton-based EC2 instance type with Arm Neoverse processors. In this manifest, it’s Graviton3-based `m7g.large`. - `publicAccess` must be `false`. The Kubernetes API server has no public endpoint. You reach the cluster exclusively through RCTL, which routes traffic through the Rafay control plane. ## Apply the cluster manifest Submit the manifest to Rafay using `rctl`: ```bash rctl apply -f demo-eks-graviton.yaml ``` The output is similar to: ```json { "tasksetId": "ko9176k", "tasksetOperations": [ { "operationName": "ClusterCreation", "resourceName": "demo-eks-graviton", "operationStatus": "PROVISION_TASK_STATUS_INPROGRESS" }, { "operationName": "NodegroupCreation", "resourceName": "graviton", "operationStatus": "PROVISION_TASK_STATUS_PENDING" }, { "operationName": "BlueprintSync", "resourceName": "demo-eks-graviton", "operationStatus": "PROVISION_TASK_STATUS_PENDING" } ], "tasksetStatus": "PROVISION_TASKSET_STATUS_INPROGRESS", "comments": "Configuration is being applied to the cluster" } ``` ## Monitor cluster provisioning Poll the cluster status until it reports `READY`: ```bash rctl get cluster demo-eks-graviton ``` Provisioning typically takes 15–20 minutes as Rafay creates the VPC, EKS control plane, and managed node group. The output is similar to: ```plaintext +-------------------+-----------------------------+---------+-----------+-----------+---------------------------+---------------------+ | NAME | CREATED AT | TYPE | STATUS | BLUEPRINT | PROVISION STATUS | ENVIRONMENT CREATED | +-------------------+-----------------------------+---------+-----------+-----------+---------------------------+---------------------+ | demo-eks-graviton | 2026-06-24T15:32:19.936269Z | aws-eks | NOT_READY | minimal | INFRA_CREATION_INPROGRESS | false | +-------------------+-----------------------------+---------+-----------+-----------+---------------------------+---------------------+ ``` While waiting, you can run the command again every few minutes. You’ll see various status values before the status changes to `READY`. You can also check the AWS CloudFormation console to look for any stack errors. ## Download the kubeconfig After the cluster is `READY`, download the kubeconfig file: ```bash rctl kubeconfig download --cluster demo-eks-graviton -f ~/.kube/demo-eks-graviton.kubeconfig ``` The output is similar to: ```plaintext kubeconfig downloaded to ~/.kube/demo-eks-graviton.kubeconfig ``` Export the path so that `kubectl` uses this cluster: ```bash export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/demo-eks-graviton.kubeconfig ``` ## Verify the nodes Confirm that the cluster has a running node and that it reports the `arm64` architecture: ```bash kubectl get nodes -L kubernetes.io/arch ``` The output is similar to: ```plaintext NAME STATUS ROLES AGE VERSION ARCH ip-192-168-13-74.ec2.internal Ready 26m v1.36.2-eks-93b80c6 arm64 ``` The `arm64` value in the `ARCH` column confirms that the node is running on an AWS Graviton-based instance. Your EKS cluster is ready to accept workloads. ## What you’ve accomplished and what’s next You’ve now defined and provisioned an Amazon EKS cluster with a Graviton-based node group using Rafay’s declarative manifest format. You then applied the manifest with RCTL, waited for the cluster to reach a ready state, and downloaded the kubeconfig so you can interact with the cluster. In the next section, you’ll deploy NGINX to this cluster and verify it runs on the Graviton-based node.