Using roles for Amazon EKS Fargate profiles - Amazon EKS
Service-linked role permissions for Amazon EKSCreating a service-linked role for Amazon EKSEditing a service-linked role for Amazon EKSDeleting a service-linked role for Amazon EKSSupported regions for Amazon EKS service-linked roles
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Using roles for Amazon EKS Fargate profiles

Amazon EKS uses Amazon Identity and Access Management (IAM) service-linked roles. A service-linked role is a unique type of IAM role that is linked directly to Amazon EKS. Service-linked roles are predefined by Amazon EKS and include all the permissions that the service requires to call other Amazon services on your behalf.

A service-linked role makes setting up Amazon EKS easier because you don't have to manually add the necessary permissions. Amazon EKS defines the permissions of its service-linked roles, and unless defined otherwise, only Amazon EKS can assume its roles. The defined permissions include the trust policy and the permissions policy, and that permissions policy cannot be attached to any other IAM entity.

You can delete a service-linked role only after first deleting their related resources. This protects your Amazon EKS resources because you can't inadvertently remove permission to access the resources.

For information about other services that support service-linked roles, see Amazon services that work with IAM and look for the services that have Yes in the Service-linked role column. Choose a Yes with a link to view the service-linked role documentation for that service.

Service-linked role permissions for Amazon EKS

Amazon EKS uses the service-linked role named AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKSForFargate – The role allows Amazon EKS Fargate to configure VPC networking required for Fargate Pods. The attached policies allow the role to create and delete elastic network interfaces and describe elastic network Interfaces and resources.

The AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKSForFargate service-linked role trusts the following services to assume the role:

  • eks-fargate.amazonaws.com

The role permissions policy allows Amazon EKS to complete the following actions on the specified resources:

You must configure permissions to allow an IAM entity (such as a user, group, or role) to create, edit, or delete a service-linked role. For more information, see Service-linked role permissions in the IAM User Guide.

Creating a service-linked role for Amazon EKS

You don't need to manually create a service-linked role. When you create a Fargate profile in the Amazon Web Services Management Console, the Amazon CLI, or the Amazon API, Amazon EKS creates the service-linked role for you.

Important

This service-linked role can appear in your account if you completed an action in another service that uses the features supported by this role. If you were using the Amazon EKS service before December 13, 2019, when it began supporting service-linked roles, then Amazon EKS created the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKSForFargate role in your account. To learn more, see A New role appeared in my IAM account.

Creating a service-linked role in Amazon EKS (Amazon API)

You don't need to manually create a service-linked role. When you create a Fargate profile in the Amazon Web Services Management Console, the Amazon CLI, or the Amazon API, Amazon EKS creates the service-linked role for you.

If you delete this service-linked role, and then need to create it again, you can use the same process to recreate the role in your account. When you create another managed node group, Amazon EKS creates the service-linked role for you again.

Editing a service-linked role for Amazon EKS

Amazon EKS does not allow you to edit the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKSForFargate service-linked role. After you create a service-linked role, you cannot change the name of the role because various entities might reference the role. However, you can edit the description of the role using IAM. For more information, see Editing a service-linked role in the IAM User Guide.

Deleting a service-linked role for Amazon EKS

If you no longer need to use a feature or service that requires a service-linked role, we recommend that you delete that role. That way you don't have an unused entity that is not actively monitored or maintained. However, you must clean up your service-linked role before you can manually delete it.

Cleaning up a service-linked role

Before you can use IAM to delete a service-linked role, you must first delete any resources used by the role.

Note

If the Amazon EKS service is using the role when you try to delete the resources, then the deletion might fail. If that happens, wait for a few minutes and try the operation again.

To delete Amazon EKS resources used by the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKSForFargate role.

  1. Open the Amazon EKS console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/eks/home#/clusters.

  2. In the left navigation pane, choose Clusters.

  3. On the Clusters page, select your cluster.

  4. Select the Compute tab.

  5. If there are any Fargate profiles in the Fargate profiles section, select each one individually, and then choose Delete.

  6. Type the name of the profile in the deletion confirmation window, and then choose Delete.

  7. Repeat this procedure for any other Fargate profiles in the cluster and for any other clusters in your account.

Manually delete the service-linked role

Use the IAM console, the Amazon CLI, or the Amazon API to delete the AWSServiceRoleForAmazonEKSForFargate service-linked role. For more information, see Deleting a service-linked role in the IAM User Guide.

Supported regions for Amazon EKS service-linked roles

Amazon EKS supports using service-linked roles in all of the regions where the service is available. For more information, see Amazon EKS endpoints and quotas.