Amazon EKS and EKS Distro now support Kubernetes version 1.21

You can now use Amazon EKS and Amazon EKS Distro to run Kubernetes v1.21, which is currently the latest available stable version of upstream Kubernetes. Highlights of the Kubernetes version 1.21 release include Cronjobs and Immutable Secrets and ConfigMaps reaching stable status, and Graceful Node Shutdown graduating to beta. You can find more details about Kubernetes 1.21 release in EKS blog post and in Kubernetes project release notes.

You can learn more about the Kubernetes versions available on Amazon EKS and instructions to update your cluster to version 1.21 by visiting EKS documentation. Amazon EKS Distro builds of Kubernetes 1.21 are available through ECR Public Gallery and GitHub.

A note on Kubernetes version 1.17 support:

Amazon EKS provides support for at least 4 Kubernetes versions at any given time. Kubernetes 1.17, 1.18, 1.19, 1.20 and 1.21 are all fully supported by EKS today, and new clusters can be started using any of these releases. However, given the Kubernetes recurrent release cycle, it is critical for all customers to have an ongoing upgrade plan.

Kubernetes version 1.17 will reach end of support on November 2nd, 2021. On this day, you will no longer be able to create new 1.17 clusters and all existing EKS clusters running Kubernetes version 1.17 will eventually be updated to the latest available platform version of Kubernetes version 1.18.

We recommend customers upgrade existing 1.17 clusters and worker nodes to at least 1.18 as soon as practical. Learn more about the EKS version lifecycle policies in the documentation.