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Robert Zsoter
Robert Zsoter

Posted on • Originally published at Medium

Using Amazon Q for AI-Assisted Debugging in Amazon EKS

Using Amazon Q for AI-Assisted Debugging in Amazon EKS

Practical insights for Kubernetes engineers

The first step: Use Amazon Q capabilities in EKS environment - Part 1:
Fix issue with AWS IAM permissions and configure EKS environment.


TL;DR

  • Amazon Q enables AI-assisted debugging directly in the AWS Console for EKS
  • It accelerates root-cause analysis but does not replace kubectl or observability tools
  • Correct IAM and EKS access configuration is critical: most Amazon Q โ€œissuesโ€ are access-related
  • Best used as a diagnostic accelerator, not an automated fix engine

๐——๐—ฒ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐—ด๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด Amazon ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ environments is rarely straightforward. Even experienced Kubernetes engineers often need to ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—บ๐˜‚๐—น๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€: pod logs, node health, IAM permissions, control plane behavior, networking, AWS-managed integrations, etc.

AWS introduced ๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ค some time ago.

๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ค, an ๐—”๐—œ ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ embedded into the AWS ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ, which brings a new operational model to ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด: a ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜-๐—ฎ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ, ๐—”๐—œ-๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด directly where engineers already work.

This article ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€ what Amazon ๐—ค adds to ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐—ด๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด, where it fits into real-world workflows, and why ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ด๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป - not AI - is the real ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐˜† to success.


Why EKS Debugging Is Still Challenging

Although EKS abstracts much of the Kubernetes control plane, ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐—ด๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด remains ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜…:
โ€ข Pod failures often involve IAM, networking, or node capacity

โ€ข Cluster events and logs are spread across services

โ€ข Kubernetes RBAC and AWS IAM must both align

โ€ข Engineers switch constantly between tools and consoles

๐—ง๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น workflows rely heavily on kubectl, CloudWatch ๐—Ÿ๐—ผ๐—ด๐˜€, ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜€ dashboards, and ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ platform ๐—ธ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜„๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ด๐—ฒ. This is ๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ, ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐˜€๐—น๐—ผ๐˜„ and cognitively expensive.


What Amazon Q Brings to the EKS Console

๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ค ๐——๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ is an AI-powered assistant ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ into the AWS ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ UI.

When used with EKS, ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป:
โ€ข Inspect cluster state and related AWS resources

โ€ข Explain error conditions in natural language

โ€ข Correlate Kubernetes symptoms with AWS infrastructure

โ€ข Suggest likely causes and remediation paths

โ€ข Generate Kubernetes YAML examples

Unlike external AI tools, Amazon ๐—ค ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—”๐—ช๐—ฆ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜, meaning its ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ are ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ to what it can ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฒ in your account and cluster.

๐—ก๐—ผ ๐—–๐—Ÿ๐—œ installation is required. The interaction happens directly ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ.


Example Queries You Can Ask

"Why is this pod in CrashLoopBackOff?"
"Explain why my node group isn't scaling up."
"Generate a Deployment YAML for NGINX with a LoadBalancer Service."
"Check if my cluster is using deprecated APIs before upgrading to 1.33."
"How do I restrict traffic between namespaces with a NetworkPolicy?"
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Console-Aware vs Cluster-Aware Amazon Q

Itโ€™s ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ that not all Amazon Q experiences are identical.

Today, ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ may ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ the following:
โ€ข ๐—š๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ค: a general-purpose AWS assistant (broadly available)
โ€ข ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜-๐—ฎ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ-๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—ค: embedded directly in EKS resource views (pods, nodes, add-ons)

The ๐—ด๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ works across services and regions.
The ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ-๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป appears contextually on cluster pages and ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜ workloads more ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—น๐˜†.
Both rely on the same fundamental principle: ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฏ๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€.


Why Access Configuration Matters More Than the AI

A ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป is that Amazon ๐—ค โ€œ๐™™๐™ค๐™š๐™จ๐™ฃโ€™๐™ฉ ๐™ฌ๐™ค๐™ง๐™ โ€ when it ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ป๐˜€ partial or ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐˜‚๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€.
๐—œ๐—ป ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†, Amazon ๐—ค ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜†๐˜‡๐—ฒ what the ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฑ to access.
For ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ, this ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜ƒ๐—ผ๐—น๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐˜€:
โ€ข ๐—œ๐—”๐—  permissions (e.g., eks:AccessKubernetesApi)
โ€ข EKS ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ (Access Entries preferred; legacy ๐™–๐™ฌ๐™จ-๐™–๐™ช๐™ฉ๐™ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ)
โ€ข Kubernetes ๐—ฅ๐—•๐—”๐—– mappings via Access Policies

Modern ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ clusters (especially 1.30+) rely on ๐™€๐™†๐™Ž ๐˜พ๐™ก๐™ช๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ง ๐˜ผ๐™˜๐™˜๐™š๐™จ๐™จ ๐™ˆ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™–๐™œ๐™š๐™ข๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ, where access is controlled through ๐—”๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—˜๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€ and ๐—”๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€, ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ the ๐™–๐™ฌ๐™จ-๐™–๐™ช๐™ฉ๐™ ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ด๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ.

If the ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐˜€ proper EKS ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€:
โ€ข Amazon ๐—ค ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜ pods or nodes
โ€ข Cluster-level ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐˜๐˜€ remain ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ
โ€ข ๐—˜๐—ฟ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜€ appear as โ€œ๐™–๐™ช๐™ฉ๐™๐™ค๐™ง๐™ž๐™ฏ๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃโ€ or โ€œ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™จ๐™ช๐™›๐™›๐™ž๐™˜๐™ž๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ ๐™–๐™˜๐™˜๐™š๐™จ๐™จโ€ messages
This is expected behavior, ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ ๐—ฎ ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐—ด.


A Common IAM Pitfall: When Amazon Q โ€œSees Nothingโ€

The user needs ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—œ๐—”๐—  ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ to interact with the cluster from the ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ, which is typically achieved through ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ ๐—”๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—˜๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€ using ๐—”๐—ฑ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฉ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜„ or ๐—–๐—น๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—”๐—ฑ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ป policies.

๐—•๐˜† ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—น๐˜, ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜† ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜ ๐—œ๐—”๐—  ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐˜€ ๐˜o use it, and when you issue a command, you may get the following error.

For example, ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ป you enter a ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ in the ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ interface, ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐˜ ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฟ message like the following: โ€œ๐˜ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ข๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ป๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜บ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ญ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณโ€ฆโ€
Amazon Q with missing permissions on Amazon EKS dashboards

๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป:
The Amazon Q panel is visible and operational, but it cannot access Kubernetes objects within the cluster because ๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ค ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐˜€ the ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—พ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐—ป your ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ cluster.



In details - the full, detailed guide

โš ๏ธImportant
You ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ the detailed guide (what ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐˜€ are ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜† in relation to ๐—œ๐—”๐—  ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ, what to do if you ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ป'๐˜ ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ an ๐™–๐™ฌ๐™จ-๐™–๐™ช๐™ฉ๐™ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ) and the solution to the error: you will find the reference, the link, ๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜, in my ๐— ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐˜‚๐—บ article.



A brief explanation

One of the most common issues Iโ€™ve encountered is the assumption that ๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ค ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜† ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐—ž๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€-๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† once you open the EKS console.
In practice, this is often ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ฒ.
Typical symptoms:
โ€ข Amazon Q responds with partial or generic answers
โ€ข Pod- or node-level questions fail silently
โ€ข Messages like โ€œ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜ง๐˜ง๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ดโ€ or โ€œ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ฃ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ค๐˜ญ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ขโ€
โ€ข The cluster appears healthy in the console, but Q cannot explain issues
This usually indicates an ๐—œ๐—”๐—  ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ฝ, not a problem with Amazon Q itself.

The most common underlying causes
The IAM role used in the AWS Console:
โ€ข Doesn't have the right EKS permissions (e.g. DescribeCluster)
โ€ข Is not ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ž๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—”๐—ฃ๐—œ

Modern EKS clusters rely on ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ ๐—–๐—น๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—”๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜, where Kubernetes access is controlled via:
โ€ข ๐—”๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—˜๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€
โ€ข ๐—”๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€
โ€ข IAMโ†’ Kubernetes RBAC mapping
Legacy aws-auth-based assumptions no longer apply.

๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐˜… (๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น)
Ensure that the console role:
โ€ข Has eks:AccessKubernetesApi
โ€ข Is mapped via an ๐—”๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—˜๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜† to the appropriate Kubernetes permissions
โ€ข Uses a read-level or admin-level Access Policy depending on use case

Once this is correctly configured, Amazon Q immediately gains the visibility required to:
โ€ข List pods and nodes
โ€ข Inspect workload state
โ€ข Provide accurate, context-aware explanations
This behavior is expected and intentional, ๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ค ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฏ๐˜†๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—œ๐—”๐—  ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฅ๐—•๐—”๐—–.

Amazon Q with the right permissions on EKS dashboards


Where Amazon Q Fits in Real Operations

Amazon Q does ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ replace:
โ€ข ๐™ ๐™ช๐™—๐™š๐™˜๐™ฉ๐™ก
โ€ข GitOps pipelines (Argo CD/Flux)
โ€ข Full observability platforms
โ€ข Incident response processes

Instead, it acts as a ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ:
โ€ข ๐—™๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ understanding of failures
โ€ข ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ time-to-hypothesis
โ€ข ๐—œ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด for new engineers
โ€ข Consistent ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ across teams
For ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—บ and ๐—ฆ๐—ฅ๐—˜ teams , it becomes a first-stop ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—น not the final authority.


When Amazon Q Is Most Useful

๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ผ๐˜€:
โ€ข Multi-cluster EKS environments
โ€ข Teams onboarding engineers new to Kubernetes
โ€ข Incident triage and exploratory debugging
โ€ข Environments with well-defined IAM and RBAC

๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ผ๐˜€:
โ€ข Highly restricted clusters with minimal visibility
โ€ข Environments expecting โ€œautomatic fixesโ€
โ€ข Poorly structured access models

Amazon ๐—ค ๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐˜€ on a good ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น; it ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ missing fundamental elements.


Key Takeaways

โ€ข ๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ค provides ๐—”๐—œ-๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ผ ๐—˜๐—ž๐—ฆ operations
โ€ข Its value depends entirely on ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ด๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป
โ€ข It ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด but does not replace engineering judgment
โ€ข Teams ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜ it as a trusted(?) ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜, not an autonomous operator

Used properly, Amazon ๐—ค can significantly ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ฒ the ๐˜๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ and effort required to ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐—ด complex ๐—ž๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฒ๐˜€ in AWS environments.


Final Thoughts

๐—”๐—œ-๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ are becoming a foundational capability in modern cloud platforms. ๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ค represents AWSโ€™s first serious step toward native, ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜-๐—ฎ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—”๐—œ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐—ด๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด for Kubernetes.

The ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐˜ most will be those who ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ:
โ€ข Clean EKS access design
โ€ข Strong IAM and RBAC practices
โ€ข Realistic expectations of AI assistance

That ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป -not AI alone- is what unlocks ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐˜†.


Note

This DEV.to post is a concise version of a longer, experience-based guide.

If youโ€™re interested in deeper technical details, IAM configuration nuances, and real-world EKS lessons learned, you can read it among My medium stories

This article is the first part of a series where we explore AI-oriented debugging and operational workflows in Kubernetes and Amazon EKS environments.


About the Author

Iโ€™m Rรณbert Zsรณtรฉr, Kubernetes & AWS architect.

If youโ€™re into Kubernetes, EKS, Terraform, and cloud-native security, follow my latest posts here:

Letโ€™s build secure, scalable clusters, together.


Note: Originally published on Medium Enhancing Amazon EKS Operations with AI capabilities of Amazon Q -Part 1


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