<p>When using <code>eksctl</code> to create Kubernetes cluster using AWS EKS, the process get stuck waiting for the nodes to join the cluster:</p>

<pre><code>nodegroup "my-cluster" has 0 node(s)
waiting for at least 3 node(s) to become ready in “my-cluster”
timed out (after 25m0s) waiting for at least 3 nodes to join the cluster and become ready in "my-cluster"
</code></pre>

<p>The message is displayed, without any additional logs, until the process eventually times out. It looks like behind the scenes, the newly created nodes are unable to communicate with the Kubernetes cluster</p>

<p>When using an existing VPC network, you have to make sure that the VPC conforms with all EKS-specific requirements [1, 2]. The blog post by logz.io provides detailed guidance on setting up a VPC network, as well as an example AWS Cloud Formation template that you can use as the basis [3].
Missing IAM Policies
The AmazonEKSWorkerNodePolicy and AmazonEKS_CNI_Policy policies [4] are required by the EKS worker nodes to be able to communicate with the cluster. </p>

<p>By default, eksctl automatically generates a role containing these policies. However, when you use “attachPolicyARNs” property to attach specific policies by ARN, you have to include these policies explicitly [5]:</p>

<pre><code>nodeGroups:
 - name: my-special-nodegroup
  iam:
   attachPolicyARNs:
    - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEKSWorkerNodePolicy
    - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonEKS_CNI_Policy
    - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/ElasticLoadBalancingFullAccess
</code></pre>

<p>[1] <a href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/create-public-private-vpc.html" rel="noreferrer">https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/create-public-private-vpc.html</a></p>

<p>[2] <a href="https://eksctl.io/usage/vpc-networking" rel="noreferrer">https://eksctl.io/usage/vpc-networking</a></p>

<p>[3] <a href="https://logz.io/blog/amazon-eks" rel="noreferrer">https://logz.io/blog/amazon-eks</a></p>

<p>[4] <a href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/worker_node_IAM_role.html" rel="noreferrer">https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/worker_node_IAM_role.html</a></p>

<p>5] <a href="https://eksctl.io/usage/iam-policies/" rel="noreferrer">https://eksctl.io/usage/iam-policies/</a></p>
