my-recipes/aws/EKS_DEPLOYMENT.md

AWS EKS Deployment Guide

This directory contains the Helm chart and configuration for deploying My Recipes application to Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service).

Structure

aws/
├── my-recipes-chart/          # Base Helm chart with default values
│   ├── Chart.yaml
│   ├── values.yaml            # Base configuration (don't modify directly)
│   └── templates/             # Kubernetes resource templates
└── values.yaml                # Project-specific values (override base values)

Prerequisites

1. AWS CLI - Configured with appropriate credentials
2. kubectl - Kubernetes command-line tool
3. Helm 3 - Package manager for Kubernetes
4. eksctl (optional) - For creating EKS clusters

Setup Steps

1. Create EKS Cluster (if not already exists)

eksctl create cluster \
  --name my-recipes-cluster \
  --region eu-central-1 \
  --nodegroup-name standard-workers \
  --node-type t3.medium \
  --nodes 2 \
  --nodes-min 1 \
  --nodes-max 3

2. Configure kubectl

aws eks update-kubeconfig --region eu-central-1 --name my-recipes-cluster

3. Create Namespace

kubectl create namespace my-apps

4. Install Ingress Controller (if not already installed)

For AWS ALB Ingress Controller:

# Install AWS Load Balancer Controller
helm repo add eks https://aws.github.io/eks-charts
helm install aws-load-balancer-controller eks/aws-load-balancer-controller \
  -n kube-system \
  --set clusterName=my-recipes-cluster

Or for NGINX Ingress Controller:

helm repo add ingress-nginx https://kubernetes.github.io/ingress-nginx
helm install nginx-ingress ingress-nginx/ingress-nginx \
  -n ingress-nginx --create-namespace

5. Install cert-manager (for SSL certificates)

helm repo add jetstack https://charts.jetstack.io
helm install cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager \
  --namespace cert-manager \
  --create-namespace \
  --set installCRDs=true

6. Configure values.yaml

Edit values.yaml in this directory and update:

• Container images: Update ECR repository URLs
• Domain names: Replace <YOUR_DOMAIN> with your actual domain
• S3 credentials: Add your AWS access key and secret key
• Database: Configure RDS connection details
• OAuth: Update redirect URIs with your domain

7. Create S3 Bucket for Backups

aws s3 mb s3://my-recipes-backups --region eu-central-1

8. Push Docker Images to ECR

# Create ECR repositories
aws ecr create-repository --repository-name my-recipes-backend --region eu-central-1
aws ecr create-repository --repository-name my-recipes-frontend --region eu-central-1

# Login to ECR
aws ecr get-login-password --region eu-central-1 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com

# Build and push backend
cd backend
docker build -t my-recipes-backend .
docker tag my-recipes-backend:latest <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/my-recipes-backend:latest
docker push <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/my-recipes-backend:latest

# Build and push frontend
cd ../frontend
docker build -t my-recipes-frontend .
docker tag my-recipes-frontend:latest <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/my-recipes-frontend:latest
docker push <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/my-recipes-frontend:latest

9. Deploy with Helm

# From the aws directory
helm install my-recipes ./my-recipes-chart \
  -f values.yaml \
  -n my-apps

10. Verify Deployment

# Check pods
kubectl get pods -n my-apps

# Check services
kubectl get svc -n my-apps

# Check ingress
kubectl get ingress -n my-apps

# View logs
kubectl logs -f deployment/my-recipes-backend -n my-apps

Upgrading

To update the deployment:

# Update values.yaml with new configuration
helm upgrade my-recipes ./my-recipes-chart \
  -f values.yaml \
  -n my-apps

Using AWS RDS (Recommended for Production)

1. Create RDS PostgreSQL instance
2. Configure security groups to allow EKS node group access
3. Update database section in values.yaml with RDS connection details
4. The chart will automatically use external database instead of in-cluster PostgreSQL

Using S3 for Backups

The application is configured to use AWS S3 for database backups instead of Cloudflare R2. Ensure:

1. S3 bucket exists and is accessible
2. AWS credentials have appropriate permissions:
   • s3:PutObject
   • s3:GetObject
   • s3:ListBucket
   • s3:DeleteObject

Environment Variables

The chart automatically creates secrets from values.yaml:

• Database credentials
• OAuth client secrets
• Email SMTP credentials
• S3 access keys

All sensitive data should be stored in AWS Secrets Manager in production and referenced via External Secrets Operator.

Monitoring

To view application logs:

# Backend logs
kubectl logs -f deployment/my-recipes-backend -n my-apps

# Frontend logs
kubectl logs -f deployment/my-recipes-frontend -n my-apps

# Database logs (if using in-cluster DB)
kubectl logs -f statefulset/my-recipes-db -n my-apps

Troubleshooting

Pods not starting

kubectl describe pod <pod-name> -n my-apps

Database connection issues

kubectl exec -it deployment/my-recipes-backend -n my-apps -- env | grep DB_

Ingress not working

kubectl describe ingress -n my-apps

Uninstall

helm uninstall my-recipes -n my-apps

Cost Optimization

For non-production environments:

• Reduce replica counts to 1
• Use smaller instance types (t3.small)
• Use in-cluster PostgreSQL instead of RDS
• Configure cluster autoscaling