<p>I have done the below steps.</p>

<pre><code>Created an EKS Cluster
Installed aws-iam-authenticator client binary
Execute "aws eks update-kubeconfig --name &lt;cluster_name&gt;"
Execute "kubectl get svc"
</code></pre>

<p>I am able to view the services available in my cluster. When I see ~/.kube/config file it is using an external command called "aws-iam-authenticator". </p>

<ol>
<li><p>My understanding is that "aws-iam-authenticator" uses my ~/.aws/credentials and retrieves the token from AWS(aws-iam-authenticator token -i cluster-1) and uses that token for "kubectl get svc" command. Is my understanding correct?</p></li>
<li><p>If my understanding correct, where does heptio comes into picture in this flow? Does Heptio Authenticator be deployed automatically when creating the EKS Cluster?</p></li>
</ol>

karthikeayan
<p>Basically, <code>Heptio authenticator</code> = <code>aws-iam-authenticator</code>.</p>

<p>You can check the details on <a href="https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-iam-authenticator" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>. If your <code>aws-iam-authenticator</code> is working fine, then you don't need to care about <code>heptio</code> additionally. They just renamed it.</p>
