Amazon EKS Adds Managed Cluster Updates and Support for Kubernetes Version 1.11

Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (EKS) now performs managed, in-place cluster upgrades for Kubernetes versions. Additionally, Amazon EKS now supports Kubernetes version 1.11.5.

Kubernetes is rapidly evolving, with frequent feature releases and bug fixes. Previously, to move between Kubernetes versions required you to manually execute a multi-step update process or create a new cluster and migrate your applications. These are time-consuming processes that can result in application downtime.

Now, Amazon EKS makes it easy to update clusters to the latest Kubernetes version without needing to manage the update process. Kubernetes version updates are done in place, removing the need to create new clusters or migrate applications to a new cluster. Kubernetes version 1.11.5 is available for all new clusters and Amazon EKS cluster updates allow you to move to version 1.11.5 for all existing clusters.

You can apply new versions of Kubernetes to a cluster either by calling the update-cluster-version API, or by using the “Update Cluster Version” button in the EKS Console. You can get details on the status of in-flight updates by calling the describe-updates API and see in-flight updates by calling the list-updates API.

Learn more in our blog and in the Amazon EKS documentation.

Please visit the AWS region table to see all AWS regions where Amazon EKS is available.