Skip to main content
Containers and Serverless Recommendation Guide

Kubernetes on Amazon EC2 (“DIY K8s”)

← Previous question
⟳ Restart

Guidance

Since you selected "I need to customized how the Kubernetes control plane is configured” we recommend Kubernetes on Amazon EC2 (“DIY K8s”) as the best place for you to start. 

What is Kubernetes on Amazon EC2 (“DIY K8s”)? 

Kubernetes is open-source software that allows you to deploy and manage containerized applications at scale. You can choose to manage Kubernetes infrastructure yourself with Amazon EC2 or get an automatically provisioned, managed Kubernetes control plane with Amazon EKS. Either way, you get powerful, community-backed integrations to AWS services like Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), and service discovery as well as the security, scalability, and high-availability of AWS. Self-managing Kubernetes requires extensive resources and knowledge and is not common among most organizations. The majority of the organizations tend to leave this burden to AWS and adopt Amazon EKS.

Why are we recommending Kubernetes on Amazon EC2 (“DIY K8s”)? 

We strongly recommend against DIY K8s. Running Kubernetes on Amazon EC2 requires a dedicated developer team and resources. Most organizations would rather spend resources on innovating rather than maintaining so it’s recommended to consider Amazon EKS if you run Kubernetes rather than running Kubernetes yourself on Amazon EC2.

While this is our recommended starting point, other services could also suit your needs and you can always try a different service if your use case changes or if Kubernetes on Amazon EC2 (“DIY K8s”) does not seem optimal for your use case. 

Page topics

Frequently Asked Questions

Open all
Kubernetes on EC2 allows you to bring container images (i.e., registry repo image)
You can self-manage Kubernetes on EC2, Outposts, Bare metal, and/or any infrastructure.
Kubernetes supports Front end services (html/JavaScript), Web services (request-response), Back-end workers (queues), Batch jobs, AI/ML, and Stateful services (databases).
Kubernetes is open source software that is available to everyone. If you plan on running Kubernetes on EC2, please visit Amazon EC2 Pricing.
No. Although there is flexibility permitted in a DIY approach, this choice is uncommon and generally not recommended for most organizations due to the complexity and resources required to self-manage Kubernetes.