Running containerized hybrid nodes with Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service

This article explains how to run Amazon EKS hybrid nodes as containers on a laptop for proof-of-concept testing, using Tailscale for network connectivity.

• EKS hybrid nodes allow worker nodes outside AWS cloud to join EKS clusters
• Containerized hybrid nodes project enables testing on modest hardware without physical infrastructure
• Tailscale provides encrypted peer-to-peer mesh network connectivity between remote host and cluster VPC
• KIND serves as base image; nodeadm installs required hybrid node software prerequisites
• Cilium CNI enables pod communication and network resource access outside cluster
• Host networking allows hybrid node container to share host IP and communicate via Tailscale
• EKS remote network must be configured with node CIDR and pod network settings
• Troubleshooting involves checking logs, verifying routing, security groups, and Cilium CRD registration

This solution simplifies hybrid node testing by eliminating infrastructure procurement challenges, enabling developers to validate hybrid node functionality on local systems before enterprise deployment.