pod_identity_agent_enable

Description

The pod_identity_agent_enable parameter enables the AWS Pod Identity Agent in your EKS cluster. This feature allows Kubernetes pods to assume IAM roles directly, providing a more secure way to grant AWS permissions to your applications without using long-lived credentials or environment variables.

When enabled, this parameter installs and configures the AWS Pod Identity Agent, which facilitates the association between Kubernetes service accounts and AWS IAM roles.

Default Value

The default value for pod_identity_agent_enable is false.

Use Cases

• Enhanced Security: Replace AWS access keys with IAM roles for pods, reducing the risk associated with long-lived credentials.
• Fine-grained Access Control: Apply precise IAM policies to specific services or components within your application.
• Regulatory Compliance: Meet security requirements by implementing the principle of least privilege for AWS resource access.
• Simplified Credential Management: Eliminate the need to manage and rotate AWS credentials within your applications.

Setting Parameters

To enable the AWS Pod Identity Agent, use the following command:

$ convox rack params set pod_identity_agent_enable=true -r rackName
Setting parameters... OK

Using with Applications

Once enabled at the rack level, you can configure services in your convox.yml file to use specific IAM policies:

services:
  web:
    build: .
    port: 3000
    accessControl:
      awsPodIdentity:
        policyArns:
          - "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEC2ContainerRegistryReadOnly"
          - "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess"
          - "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:policy/MyCustomPolicy"

In this example, the web service is granted permissions defined in three AWS IAM policies:

1. Read-only access to ECR repositories
2. Read-only access to S3 buckets
3. A custom policy you’ve defined in your AWS account

Additional Information

• The Pod Identity Agent creates a new IAM role for each service that uses the awsPodIdentity configuration.
• The IAM role names follow the pattern eksctl-<cluster-name>-addon-pod-identity-role.
• Applications using Pod Identity don’t need to include AWS credentials in their environment variables.
• When a pod is created, the identity agent automatically injects AWS credentials into the pod’s environment.
• This implementation leverages EKS Pod Identity, which is the AWS-recommended approach for pod IAM access.
• Pod Identity replaces the older kiam/kube2iam pattern as well as the IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA) approach.
• Each service can have different IAM policies attached, allowing for precise access control.

Version Requirements

This feature requires at least Convox rack version 3.18.1.