<p>I want to replace a node group entirely with fresh nodes in an EKS node group.</p>
<p>Whats is the difference between</p>
<pre><code>eksctl scale nodegroup --cluster=$CLUSTER_NAME --nodes=0
</code></pre>
<p>And draining/deleting nodegroup, then provisioning via Terraform?</p>

deagleshot
<p>To replace an entire node group in an EKS cluster, you can either use the eksctl command or manually drain and delete the node group and provision a new one with Terraform.</p>
<pre><code>eksctl scale nodegroup --cluster=my-cluster --nodes=0
</code></pre>
<p>This command will drain and delete all nodes in the node group, leaving the node group empty. You can then use the eksctl create nodegroup command to provision a new node group with the desired configuration.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The difference between draining and deleting a node group is that :</p>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><p>Draining a node group will gracefully terminate the nodes in the
group, while deleting a node group will immediately terminate the
nodes.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Draining a node group is typically used when you want to replace the
node group with a new one, while deleting a node group is usually
used when you want to completely remove the node group from the EKS
cluster</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>For more information refer to this <a href="https://eksctl.io/usage/managing-nodegroups/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">EKS Doc</a></p>
