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EKS Auto Mode lets AWS fully manage the compute plane of your EKS cluster. Instead of provisioning and managing EC2 node groups yourself, you enable Auto Mode and AWS automatically provisions, scales, and terminates nodes based on workload demand. This example shows two configurations: one using the built-in general-purpose node pool, and one using only custom node pools (where you manage the NodePool and EC2NodeClass resources yourself).

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Prerequisites

  • AWS credentials configured with permissions to create EKS clusters, IAM roles, VPCs, and EC2 resources
  • Terraform >= 1.5.7
  • AWS provider >= 6.28
  • The example provisions its own VPC — no pre-existing VPC is required
Due to a limitation in the EKS Auto Mode API, disabling Auto Mode requires explicitly setting compute_config = { enabled = false } and applying before you can remove the block entirely. Simply removing the compute_config block will not disable Auto Mode.

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Example code

The following is the complete main.tf from examples/eks-auto-mode. 
provider "aws" {
  region = local.region
}

data "aws_availability_zones" "available" {
  # Exclude local zones
  filter {
    name   = "opt-in-status"
    values = ["opt-in-not-required"]
  }
}

locals {
  name               = "ex-${basename(path.cwd)}"
  kubernetes_version = "1.33"
  region             = "us-west-2"

  vpc_cidr = "10.0.0.0/16"
  azs      = slice(data.aws_availability_zones.available.names, 0, 3)

  tags = {
    Test       = local.name
    GithubRepo = "terraform-aws-eks"
    GithubOrg  = "terraform-aws-modules"
  }
}

################################################################################
# EKS Module
################################################################################

module "eks" {
  source = "../.."  # use "terraform-aws-modules/eks/aws" version "~> 21.0" from registry

  name                   = local.name
  kubernetes_version     = local.kubernetes_version
  endpoint_public_access = true

  enable_cluster_creator_admin_permissions = true

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

  vpc_id     = module.vpc.vpc_id
  subnet_ids = module.vpc.private_subnets

  tags = local.tags
}

module "eks_auto_custom_node_pools" {
  source = "../.."  # use "terraform-aws-modules/eks/aws" version "~> 21.0" from registry

  name                   = "${local.name}-custom"
  kubernetes_version     = local.kubernetes_version
  endpoint_public_access = true

  enable_cluster_creator_admin_permissions = true

  # Create just the IAM resources for EKS Auto Mode for use with custom node pools
  create_auto_mode_iam_resources = true
  compute_config = {
    enabled = true
  }

  vpc_id     = module.vpc.vpc_id
  subnet_ids = module.vpc.private_subnets

  tags = local.tags
}

module "disabled_eks" {
  source = "../.."  # use "terraform-aws-modules/eks/aws" version "~> 21.0" from registry

  create = false
}

################################################################################
# Supporting Resources
################################################################################

module "vpc" {
  source  = "terraform-aws-modules/vpc/aws"
  version = "~> 6.0"

  name = local.name
  cidr = local.vpc_cidr

  azs             = local.azs
  private_subnets = [for k, v in local.azs : cidrsubnet(local.vpc_cidr, 4, k)]
  public_subnets  = [for k, v in local.azs : cidrsubnet(local.vpc_cidr, 8, k + 48)]
  intra_subnets   = [for k, v in local.azs : cidrsubnet(local.vpc_cidr, 8, k + 52)]

  enable_nat_gateway = true
  single_nat_gateway = true

  public_subnet_tags = {
    "kubernetes.io/role/elb" = 1
  }

  private_subnet_tags = {
    "kubernetes.io/role/internal-elb" = 1
  }

  tags = local.tags
}

​
Key concepts

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Built-in node pools vs. custom node pools

ConfigurationWhen to use
node_pools = ["general-purpose"]Let AWS manage a default pool; zero node-group config needed
create_auto_mode_iam_resources = true with no node_poolsYou define your own NodePool / EC2NodeClass CRDs but still rely on the Auto Mode IAM setup

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compute_config block

  • enabled = true — turns on EKS Auto Mode for the cluster
  • node_pools — list of built-in pools to activate; valid values include general-purpose and system
  • Omitting node_pools (with create_auto_mode_iam_resources = true) means you bring your own Karpenter-style NodePool resources
When endpoint_public_access = true, the Kubernetes API is reachable from the internet. Restrict endpoint_public_access_cidrs to your own IP range in production.

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Deploy

1

Initialize Terraform

Download the required providers and modules.
terraform init
2

Review the plan

Preview what Terraform will create before applying.
terraform plan
3

Apply the configuration

Create the cluster and all supporting resources. Cluster creation typically takes 10–15 minutes.
terraform apply
4

Configure kubectl

Update your local kubeconfig so you can interact with the cluster.
aws eks update-kubeconfig --region us-west-2 --name <cluster-name>

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Key outputs

After a successful apply the following outputs are available:
OutputDescription
cluster_nameName of the EKS cluster
cluster_endpointKubernetes API server endpoint
cluster_certificate_authority_dataBase64-encoded CA data for kubectl
cluster_iam_role_arnARN of the cluster IAM role
node_iam_role_arnARN of the EKS Auto Mode node IAM role
oidc_provider_arnOIDC provider ARN for IRSA

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Cleanup

terraform destroy
Before destroying, ensure no external resources (load balancers, persistent volumes, etc.) were created by workloads running on the cluster. Those are not managed by this Terraform configuration and must be deleted separately.

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Full example on GitHub

View the complete example including outputs.tf, variables.tf, and versions.tf.

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