Kubernetes has become the de facto standard for container orchestration, making it a key piece in the containerization strategy of many users. Amazon EKS Distro (EKS-D) is a Kubernetes distribution from AWS that lets you run on-premise clusters using the same tested Kubernetes versions, security features, and tooling that power Amazon EKS. This means that EKS-D is compatible with the Kubernetes tools and processes you’re already using, making it easy to operate in-house Kubernetes clusters.

Datadog is proud to partner with AWS for the launch of EKS-D. Our integrations for Kubernetes and other key technologies common to Kubernetes environments, like containerd, Istio and CoreDNS, bring you deep visibility into EKS-D so you can monitor all of your clusters—whether self-hosted or in the cloud—within the Datadog platform.

Build and operate on-premise Kubernetes clusters

A fully managed Kubernetes service like EKS on Fargate removes the overhead of managing infrastructure and keeping components up to date, but doesn’t give you the control over your configuration that you may need to maintain your security posture or meet compliance requirements. Building on-premise Kubernetes clusters on EKS-D gives you greater control over your infrastructure along with the convenience of a Kubernetes distribution that’s maintained and tested by Amazon for reliability and security.

Like EKS, EKS-D is certified as a conformant Kubernetes distribution, so you can seamlessly migrate applications from Kubernetes or EKS to EKS-D. It uses open source Kubernetes and includes security patches and components—such as etcd, kubectl, and kube-controller-manager—plus networking and storage plugins. EKS-D is the same distribution that EKS runs on, and it’s available as an open source project that you can use to create on-premise clusters.

Extend your Kubernetes visibility to EKS-D

To successfully manage your Kubernetes clusters, you need visibility into the health and performance of each layer of your environment, including the control plane The orchestration layer that exposes APIs and internal services for cluster management , data plane, worker nodes , and network, so you can troubleshoot issues quickly. But monitoring Kubernetes is difficult because its dynamic workload scheduling and ephemeral infrastructure make it hard to know exactly where your workloads are running. The Datadog Agent and integrations are designed to tackle the challenges of monitoring Kubernetes clusters, including those powered by EKS-D.

The Datadog Agent collects node-level metrics from the hosts where your pods A group of containers running in a Kubernetes cluster are deployed so you have insight into the resource usage of your workloads. You can also get telemetry from key Kubernetes components like the API server, the controller manager, the scheduler, and etcd, so you can monitor your cluster’s control plane in detail.

Datadog’s Kubernetes integration collects metrics, events, and logs at the level of your cluster and pods and helps you understand the performance of the containers where your applications are running. Because EKS-D is a Kubernetes distribution, you can begin monitoring the health of any of your EKS-D clusters as soon as you’ve set up the Kubernetes integration. Datadog will automatically populate out-of-the-box dashboards, like the one below showing control plane performance, so you can visualize cluster health immediately.

Once you’ve started monitoring EKS-D, you can use additional integrations to get visibility into your entire stack with Datadog. For example, use the Docker and containerd integrations to collect container-level metrics. Autodiscovery automatically identifies and configures integrations as your cluster launches new containers, making it easy to collect metrics, as well as logs and traces, so you can track the health and performance of your dynamic, containerized applications. And you can get even more visibility using related integrations like CoreDNS and Istio to better understand the performance of your EKS-D cluster.

Monitor Amazon EKS Distro with Datadog

Datadog now gives you full visibility into Amazon EKS Distro. You can monitor your on-premise Kubernetes clusters—including your control plane, worker nodes, and network performance—plus more than 1,000 other technologies, all in a single platform. If you’re not already using Datadog, sign up today for a free 14-day trial.