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Vladimir Chavkov

Amazon EKS Advanced Operations Training

Master production EKS operations in this 3-day advanced course. Learn cluster scaling, security hardening, cost optimization, upgrade strategies, and multi-cluster patterns for enterprise Kubernetes on AWS.

Duration3 days (24 hours)
LevelAdvanced
DeliveryIn-person, Live online, Hybrid
CertificationN/A
  • Platform engineers running EKS in production
  • SRE teams responsible for EKS reliability and performance
  • Security engineers hardening EKS environments
  • Teams optimizing EKS costs at scale

After completing this training, participants will be able to:

  • Implement Cluster Autoscaler and Karpenter for efficient scaling
  • Harden EKS clusters with network policies, Pod Security Standards, and GuardDuty
  • Optimize costs with Spot instances, Fargate, and right-sizing
  • Execute zero-downtime cluster upgrades
  • Implement GitOps with Flux or ArgoCD on EKS
  • Design multi-cluster and multi-region EKS architectures

Module 1: Node Scaling with Karpenter

  • Karpenter architecture and provisioners
  • NodePool and EC2NodeClass configuration
  • Instance type selection and consolidation
  • Karpenter vs Cluster Autoscaler — when to use each
  • Hands-on: Deploy Karpenter and configure auto-scaling

Module 2: Application Scaling and Performance

  • Horizontal Pod Autoscaler with custom metrics
  • Vertical Pod Autoscaler
  • KEDA for event-driven scaling
  • Resource right-sizing strategies
  • Hands-on: Implement HPA with custom CloudWatch metrics

Module 3: Network Security

  • Calico and VPC CNI network policies
  • Security groups for Pods
  • AWS PrivateLink for private API access
  • Egress control with NAT Gateway and proxy
  • Hands-on: Implement zero-trust networking with network policies

Module 4: Runtime Security and Compliance

  • Amazon GuardDuty for EKS Runtime Monitoring
  • Pod Security Standards and admission controllers
  • OPA Gatekeeper for policy enforcement
  • Image scanning with Amazon Inspector
  • Secrets management with AWS Secrets Manager CSI driver
  • Hands-on: Deploy GuardDuty, Gatekeeper policies, and Secrets Manager

Module 5: Cluster Upgrades and Maintenance

  • EKS upgrade lifecycle and support windows
  • Control plane and node group upgrade strategies
  • Add-on compatibility and upgrade order
  • Blue-green cluster upgrades with DNS switching
  • Hands-on: Perform a rolling cluster upgrade

Module 6: Cost Optimization

  • Spot instances with Karpenter
  • Fargate for burst workloads
  • Kubecost for cost visibility
  • Savings Plans and Reserved Instances for EKS
  • Hands-on: Implement cost-optimized node pools with Spot and on-demand mix

Module 7: Multi-Cluster Architectures

  • Multi-cluster patterns (federation, mesh, GitOps)
  • Cross-cluster service discovery
  • Multi-region failover with Route 53
  • GitOps with Flux for multi-cluster management
  • Hands-on: Deploy applications across multiple EKS clusters with Flux
  • EKS Fundamentals training or equivalent hands-on EKS experience
  • AWS networking (VPC, subnets, security groups) and IAM experience
  • Kubernetes administration skills (kubectl, Helm, resource management)
FormatDescription
In-PersonOn-site at your company’s location, hands-on with direct interaction
Live OnlineInteractive virtual sessions with screen sharing and real-time labs
HybridCombination of on-site and remote sessions, flexible scheduling

All formats include hands-on labs, course materials, and post-training support.