**Help improve this page** 

To contribute to this user guide, choose the **Edit this page on GitHub** link that is located in the right pane of every page.

# Manage networking add-ons for Amazon EKS clusters
<a name="eks-networking-add-ons"></a>

Several networking add-ons are available for your Amazon EKS cluster.

## Built-in add-ons
<a name="eks-networking-add-ons-built-in"></a>

**Note**  
 **When you create an EKS cluster:**   
 **Using the AWS Console**: The built-in add-ons (like CoreDNS, kube-proxy, etc.) are automatically installed as Amazon EKS Add-ons. These can be easily configured and updated through the AWS Console, CLI, or SDKs.
 **Using other methods** (CLI, SDKs, etc.): The same built-in add-ons are installed as self-managed versions that run as regular Kubernetes deployments. These require manual configuration and updates since they can’t be managed through AWS tools.
We recommend using Amazon EKS Add-ons rather than self-managed versions to simplify add-on management and enable centralized configuration and updates through AWS services.

 **Amazon VPC CNI plugin for Kubernetes**   
This CNI add-on creates elastic network interfaces and attaches them to your Amazon EC2 nodes. The add-on also assigns a private `IPv4` or `IPv6` address from your VPC to each Pod and service. This add-on is installed, by default, on your cluster. For more information, see [Assign IPs to Pods with the Amazon VPC CNI](managing-vpc-cni.md). If you are using hybrid nodes, the VPC CNI is still installed by default but it is prevented from running on your hybrid nodes with an anti-affinity rule. For more information about your CNI options for hybrid nodes, see [Configure CNI for hybrid nodes](hybrid-nodes-cni.md).

 **CoreDNS**   
CoreDNS is a flexible, extensible DNS server that can serve as the Kubernetes cluster DNS. CoreDNS provides name resolution for all Pods in the cluster. This add-on is installed, by default, on your cluster. For more information, see [Manage CoreDNS for DNS in Amazon EKS clusters](managing-coredns.md).

 ** `kube-proxy` **   
This add-on maintains network rules on your Amazon EC2 nodes and enables network communication to your Pods. This add-on is installed, by default, on your cluster. For more information, see [Manage `kube-proxy` in Amazon EKS clusters](managing-kube-proxy.md).

## Optional AWS networking add-ons
<a name="eks-networking-add-ons-optional"></a>

 ** AWS Load Balancer Controller**   
When you deploy Kubernetes service objects of type `loadbalancer`, the controller creates AWS Network Load Balancers . When you create Kubernetes ingress objects, the controller creates AWS Application Load Balancers. We recommend using this controller to provision Network Load Balancers, rather than using the [legacy Cloud Provider](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/aws-load-balancer-controller/latest/guide/service/annotations/#legacy-cloud-provider) controller built-in to Kubernetes. For more information, see the [AWS Load Balancer Controller](https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/aws-load-balancer-controller) documentation.

 ** AWS Gateway API Controller**   
This controller lets you connect services across multiple Kubernetes clusters using the [Kubernetes gateway API](https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/). The controller connects Kubernetes services running on Amazon EC2 instances, containers, and serverless functions by using the [Amazon VPC Lattice](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc-lattice/latest/ug/what-is-vpc-service-network.html) service. For more information, see the [AWS Gateway API Controller](https://www.gateway-api-controller.eks.aws.dev/) documentation.

For more information about add-ons, see [Amazon EKS add-ons](eks-add-ons.md).