Do you need to manage Node level OS updates when using Kubernetes?

Question

Let's say we're using EKS on AWS, would we need to manually manage the underlying Node's OS, installing patches and updates?

I would imagine that the pods and containers running inside the Node could be updated by simply version bumping the containers OS in your Dockerfile, but I'm unsure about how that would work for the Node's OS. Would the provider (AWS) in this case manage that?

Would be great to get an explanation for both Windows and Linux nodes. Are they different? Thank you!

user_213269 · Answer

Yes, you need to keep the nodes updated. But this has recently became easier with the new Bottlerocket - container optimized OS for nodes in EKS.

Updates to Bottlerocket can be automated using container orchestration services such as Amazon EKS, which lowers management overhead and reduces operational costs.

See also the blog post Bottlerocket – Open Source OS for Container Hosting

Do you need to manage Node level OS updates when using Kubernetes?

1 Answers