Kubernetes EC2 Operator

An OpenShift/Kubernetes Operator that manages AWS EC2 instances using Kubernetes Custom Resources. This allows you to provision and manage AWS infrastructure natively using standard YAML files.

📋 Prerequisites

Before deploying this operator, ensure you have the following:

1. OpenShift / Kubernetes Cluster: Access to a running cluster.
2. CLI Tools oc or kubectl installed and logged in.
3. AWS Account An IAM User with AmazonEC2FullAccess permissions. You will need the **Access Key ID You will need the Secret Access Key
4. Network Access Your cluster nodes must be able to pull images from the internal registry: docker.io (Note: If deploying to a cluster outside this network, push the image to a public registry like Docker Hub or Quay.io first).

🚀 Deployment Guide

Follow these steps to deploy the operator to any OpenShift cluster.

Step 1: Clone the Repository

Get the manifests and configuration files to your local machine (or bastion host).

$ git clone https://github.com/bshaw7/k8s-ec2-operator
$ cd k8s-ec2-operator

Step 2: Deploy the Operator

Install the CRDs (Custom Resource Definitions) and the Operator Deployment using the pre-built image.

Run this command from the project root:

$ oc apply -f config/samples/ec2_v1alpha1_ec2instance.yaml

Note: If you do not have make installed on the cluster machine, you can generate a raw YAML installer file locally using kustomize build config/default > install.yaml and then run oc apply -f install.yaml.

Step 3: Configure AWS Credentials

The operator runs as a Pod in the k8s-ec2-operator-system namespace. It needs your AWS credentials to talk to the EC2 API.

We are using ap-south-1 (Mumbai) for this setup.

Run the following commands to create a Secret and inject it into the Deployment:

# 1. Create the Secret (Replace with your REAL keys)
oc create secret generic aws-creds \
  -n k8s-ec2-operator-system \
  --from-literal=AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_HERE \
  --from-literal=AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=YOUR_SECRET_KEY_HERE \
  --from-literal=AWS_REGION=ap-south-1

# 2. Inject the Secret into the Deployment environment
oc set env deployment/k8s-ec2-operator-controller-manager \
  -n k8s-ec2-operator-system \
  --from=secret/aws-creds

Step 4: Verify Status

Check that the operator is running successfully.

oc get pods -n k8s-ec2-operator-system

• **Status Running**: Ready to use.
• **Status ImagePullBackOff**: The cluster nodes cannot reach the private registry URL. Check your network or image pull secrets.

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🛠 Usage

1. Create an EC2 Instance

Create a YAML file named ec2-instance.yaml with your specific AWS details (AMI and Subnet ID).

apiVersion: ec2.my.domain/v1alpha1
kind: EC2Instance
metadata:
  name: my-demo-server
spec:
  ami: ami-0001234567        # Change this to a valid AMI for your region
  instanceType: "t3.micro"   # instanfe type 
  subnetID: subnet-123456789 # Change this to your valid Subnet ID
  # OPTIONAL FIELDS
  tags:
    Name: "my-demo-server"
    Environment: "Production"
    ManagedBy: "OpenShift Operator"

Apply it to the cluster:

oc apply -f ec2-instance.yaml

2. Verify Creation

Check the status of the object. Once the Operator processes it, the STATUS column will show the new AWS Instance ID.

oc get ec2instance my-test-server

You can also describe the object to see events:

oc describe ec2instance my-test-server

3. Delete the Instance

To terminate the AWS server, simply delete the Kubernetes manifest. The operator includes a Finalizer, so it will automatically clean up (terminate) the EC2 instance in AWS before removing the Kubernetes object.

oc delete -f ec2-instance.yaml

$ oc delete -f config/samples/ec2_v1alpha1_ec2instance.yaml

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🔧 Troubleshooting

If your instance is not being created, check the Operator logs:

oc logs -f deployment/k8s-ec2-operator-controller-manager -n k8s-ec2-operator-system