Enable or Disable Built-in NodePools - Amazon EKS
Built-in NodePool ReferencePrerequisitesEnable with Amazon CLIDisable with Amazon CLI
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Enable or Disable Built-in NodePools

EKS Auto Mode has two built-in NodePools. You can enable or disable these NodePools using the Amazon console, CLI, or API.

Built-in NodePool Reference

  • system

    • This NodePool has a CriticalAddonsOnly taint. Many EKS addons, such as CoreDNS, tolerate this taint. Use this system node pool to segregate cluster-critical applications.

    • Supports both amd64 and arm64 architectures.

  • general-purpose

    • This NodePool provides support for launching nodes for general purpose workloads in your cluster.

    • Uses only amd64 architecture.

Both built-in NodePools:

  • Use the default EKS NodeClass

  • Use only on-demand EC2 capacity

  • Use the C, M, and R EC2 instance families

  • Require generation 5 or newer EC2 instances

Prerequisites

  • The latest version of the Amazon Command Line Interface (Amazon CLI) installed and configured on your device. To check your current version, use aws --version. To install the latest version, see Installing and Quick configuration with aws configure in the Amazon Command Line Interface User Guide.

    • Login to the CLI with sufficent IAM permissions to create Amazon resources including IAM Policies, IAM Roles, and EKS Clusters.

Enable with Amazon CLI

Use the following command to enable both built-in NodePools:

aws eks update-cluster-config \
  --name <cluster-name> \
  --compute-config '{
    "nodeRoleArn": "<node-role-arn>",
    "nodePools": ["general-purpose", "system"]
  }'

You can modify the command to selectively enable the NodePools.

Disable with Amazon CLI

Use the following command to disable both built-in NodePools:

aws eks update-cluster-config \
  --name <cluster-name> \
  --compute-config '{"nodePools": []}'