What challenges would you face on migrating a service to EKS?

Listed down few challenges i faced when i migrated a service to Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service)

Application Compatibility

One of the main challenges will be ensuring your existing applications are compatible with Kubernetes architecture. Some key considerations:

• Stateful vs Stateless Applications: Kubernetes is primarily designed for stateless applications. You'll need to evaluate if your current stateful applications can be adapted or if you need to redesign them.
• Containerization: Ensure your applications are properly containerized. This may involve refactoring some components to fit container-based architectures.
• Networking: Review your application's networking requirements and ensure they can be properly configured in a Kubernetes environment.

Infrastructure Complexity

Migrating to Kubernetes introduces new layers of complexity in terms of infrastructure management

• Cluster Management: You'll need to set up and maintain a Kubernetes cluster, which adds another layer of responsibility compared to traditional VMs.
• Resource Allocation: Kubernetes uses a different model for resource allocation compared to traditional VMs, which may require adjustments in how resources are allocated and managed.
• Scalability: While Kubernetes offers great scalability, it requires careful planning to ensure proper scaling of applications and services.

Security and Compliance

Ensuring security and compliance when moving to Kubernetes is crucial.

• Network Policies: Implement proper network policies to control traffic between pods and namespaces.
• Secret Management: Ensure sensitive information is properly secured using Kubernetes secrets or external secret management solutions.
• Audit Logging: Set up comprehensive audit logging to track changes and access to cluster resources.

Data Persistence

Applications requiring persistent storage will face challenges:

• Persistent Volumes: Configure persistent volumes to store data that needs to persist across pod restarts or rescheduling.
• Backup and Recovery: Develop strategies for backing up and recovering data stored in Kubernetes.

Monitoring and Observability

Implement robust monitoring and observability tools to:

• Track application performance metrics
• Detect anomalies and issues quickly
• Correlate logs and metrics for troubleshooting