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In a recent blog post, we explore how HPE Aruba Networking successfully transitioned to Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), modernizing their container platform. This transformation was driven by the need for a more scalable and efficient orchestration solution that could handle their expanding workload.
HPE Aruba Networking’s EdgeConnect Cloud Orchestrator operates as a cloud-native Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) orchestrator, managing both physical and virtual SD-WAN gateways at the enterprise edge. Initially leveraging Docker Swarm for their container management, they found that as their operations grew, the limitations of Docker Swarm became increasingly apparent. The team experienced several challenges, including high maintenance costs, instability due to quorum loss, and complicated upgrade processes that sometimes resulted in complete cluster failures.
To address these issues, HPE Aruba Networking evaluated various container orchestration platforms and ultimately selected Kubernetes, a robust open-source solution capable of meeting their future needs. They opted for Amazon EKS, AWS’s managed Kubernetes service, which simplifies operations and management.
The architecture of their new container platform involves creating a dedicated Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) for each EKS cluster, with multiple worker nodes spread across three Availability Zones (AZs). This setup enhances resilience and facilitates easier traffic management through Application Load Balancers (ALBs).
One of the standout features of Amazon EKS is its ability to provide managed control plane upgrades. This feature ensures that if any readiness checks fail during an upgrade, the system automatically reverts to the previous version, thus avoiding potential downtime. Furthermore, AWS VPC CNI plugin significantly simplified the network configuration by eliminating the need for complex overlay networks.
In terms of security, HPE Aruba Networking implemented AWS Identity and Access Management (AWS IAM) roles for service accounts, ensuring fine-grained permissions and credential isolation. They also deployed multiple EKS clusters across different VPCs to minimize the impact of potential outages.
HPE Aruba Networking’s successful migration to Amazon EKS showcases how organizations can optimize their container orchestration by leveraging cloud-native solutions. For more insights on effective feedback mechanisms during such transitions, check out this blog post. Additional resources, such as this article, provide excellent context on onboarding processes, while the information from SHRM can help ensure compliance with industry standards.