EKS Auto Mode Contact Form Application

A contact form application deployed on Amazon EKS Auto Mode with persistent MySQL storage using EBS CSI driver and Application Load Balancer (ALB) ingress.

Note: This project demonstrates EKS Auto Mode capabilities in a development environment. For production deployments, consider additional security hardening, monitoring, and backup strategies.

🏗️ Architecture Overview

This project demonstrates a modern cloud-native application architecture leveraging:

• EKS Auto Mode - Fully managed Kubernetes compute and storage
• Application Load Balancer - Layer 7 load balancing with SSL termination
• EBS CSI Driver - Persistent storage for MySQL database
• PHP Contact Form - Custom containerized application
• MySQL Database - Persistent data storage with encrypted EBS volumes
• phpMyAdmin - Database management interface

Why EKS Auto Mode?

EKS Auto Mode represents a paradigm shift in Kubernetes management on AWS:

Traditional EKS Challenges

• Manual node group management
• Complex autoscaling configuration
• Storage driver installation and management
• Load balancer controller setup
• Security group and IAM role management

EKS Auto Mode Benefits

• Zero Node Management - Nodes provisioned on-demand automatically
• Built-in Storage - EBS CSI driver pre-installed and configured
• Integrated Load Balancing - ALB controller managed automatically
• Cost Optimization - Pay only for running workloads
• Simplified Operations - Reduced operational overhead by 70%
• Enhanced Security - AWS-managed security updates and patches

📁 Project Structure

eks-auto-mode/
├── modules/
│   ├── eks/                    # EKS Auto Mode configuration
│   │   ├── main.tf
│   │   ├── variables.tf
│   │   └── locals.tf
│   └── network/                # VPC and networking
│       ├── main.tf
|       ├── variables.tf
│       └── outputs.tf
├── kubernetes/                 # Kubernetes manifests
│   ├── alb-ingressclass.yaml
│   ├── alb-ingressclassparams.yaml
│   ├── alb-app-ingress.yml
│   ├── ebs-storageclass.yaml
│   ├── mysql-pvc.yaml
│   ├── mysql-db-deployment.yml
│   ├── phpapp-deployment.yml
│   └── configmap.yml
├── main.tf                     # Root Terraform configuration
├── variables.tf
└── terraform.tfvars

Infrastructure Components

Terraform Configuration

EKS Auto Mode Cluster

module "eks" {
  source  = "terraform-aws-modules/eks/aws"
  version = "~> 21.0"

  name               = var.cluster_name
  kubernetes_version = var.cluster_version

  compute_config = {
    enabled    = true
    node_pools = ["general-purpose"]
  }

  vpc_id     = var.vpc_id
  subnet_ids = var.private_subnet_ids
}

Key Features

• Auto Mode Enabled - compute_config.enabled = true
• General Purpose Node Pool - Optimized for mixed workloads
• Private Subnets - Enhanced security posture
• Managed Security Groups - Automatic configuration

Kubernetes Resources

Storage Configuration

# EBS CSI StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: ebs-csi
provisioner: ebs.csi.eks.amazonaws.com
parameters:
  type: gp3
  encrypted: "true"

Ingress Configuration

# IngressClassParams for ALB
apiVersion: eks.amazonaws.com/v1
kind: IngressClassParams
metadata:
  name: alb
spec:
  scheme: internet-facing
  group:
    name: contactform
  certificateARNs:
  - arn:aws:acm:region:account:certificate/cert-id

Deployment Guide

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI configured with appropriate permissions
• Terraform >= 1.12.2
• kubectl installed
• Valid SSL certificate in AWS Certificate Manager

Step 1: Infrastructure Deployment

# Initialize Terraform
terraform init

# Plan deployment
terraform plan

# Apply infrastructure
terraform apply

Step 2: Configure kubectl

aws eks update-kubeconfig --region eu-west-2 --name <clustername/>

Step 3: Deploy Kubernetes Resources

# Apply storage configuration
kubectl apply -f kubernetes/ebs-storageclass.yaml
kubectl apply -f kubernetes/mysql-pvc.yaml

# Apply ingress configuration
kubectl apply -f kubernetes/alb-ingressclassparams.yaml
kubectl apply -f kubernetes/alb-ingressclass.yaml

# Deploy applications
kubectl apply -f kubernetes/

Step 4: Verify Deployment

# Check cluster status
kubectl get nodes

# Verify storage
kubectl get storageclass
kubectl get pvc

# Check ingress
kubectl get ingress
kubectl get ingressclass

# Verify applications
kubectl get pods
kubectl get services

Application Components

Contact Form Application

• Image: oluwaseuna/k8s-contactform:1.0
• Language: PHP
• Features: Form validation
• Endpoints:
  • / - Contact form interface

MySQL Database

• Version: 8.4.5
• Storage: 10Gi encrypted EBS volume
• Persistence: Data survives pod restarts and deployments
• Backup: Point-in-time recovery via EBS snapshots

phpMyAdmin

• Purpose: Database administration interface
• Access: sql.classof25.online
• Security: Kubernetes secrets for authentication

Security Features

Network Security

• Private subnets for worker nodes
• Security groups with least privilege access
• ALB with SSL/TLS termination

Data Security

• Encrypted EBS volumes for database storage
• Kubernetes secrets for sensitive data
• SSL certificates for HTTPS traffic

Access Control

• IAM roles with minimal required permissions
• Kubernetes RBAC (future enhancement)
• VPC isolation

Monitoring and Observability

Built-in Monitoring

• CloudWatch Container Insights (auto-enabled)
• EKS control plane logging
• ALB access logs and metrics

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Nodes Not Appearing

EKS Auto Mode creates nodes on-demand. Deploy workloads to trigger node provisioning:

kubectl apply -f test-deployment.yaml
kubectl get nodes -w

Storage Issues

Verify EBS CSI driver and StorageClass:

kubectl get storageclass
kubectl describe pvc mysql-pvc
kubectl get events --field-selector involvedObject.kind=PersistentVolumeClaim

Ingress Issues

Check ALB creation and configuration:

kubectl describe ingress contactform
aws elbv2 describe-load-balancers --region eu-west-2

Useful Commands

# Check cluster health
kubectl get all

# View recent events
kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp' | tail -20

# Check pod logs
kubectl logs -l app=php-app

# Verify persistent storage
kubectl exec -it deployment/mysql-db -- df -h

Access URLs

• Contact Form: https://form.classof25.online
• Database Admin: https://sql.classof25.online

Additional Resources

• Kubernetes Documentation
• Docker Hub - Contact Form Image
• MySQL Official Documentation
• AWS CLI Configuration