Deploying a 2048 Game App on Amazon EKS using Fargate and ALB Ingress Controller

Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) simplifies the process of running Kubernetes on AWS. In this blog, we’ll walk through deploying a sample 2048 web game on an EKS cluster using AWS Fargate, ALB Ingress Controller, and Helm.

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🧰 Prerequisites

Ensure the following tools are installed and configured on your machine:

• kubectl – CLI for Kubernetes

• eksctl – CLI for creating and managing EKS clusters

• AWS CLI – CLI for AWS services

  • Run aws configure to set your credentials and default region

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☁️ Step 1: Create the EKS Cluster using Fargate

Use eksctl to create a cluster named demo-cluster with Fargate support:

bashCopyEditeksctl create cluster --name demo-cluster --region us-east-1 --fargate

To delete the cluster later:

bashCopyEditeksctl delete cluster --name demo-cluster --region us-east-1

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🔐 Step 2: Configure IAM OIDC Provider

EKS needs an OIDC provider to allow IAM roles for service accounts.

bashCopyEditexport cluster_name=demo-cluster
oidc_id=$(aws eks describe-cluster --name $cluster_name --query "cluster.identity.oidc.issuer" --output text | cut -d '/' -f 5)

Check if it's already configured:

bashCopyEditaws iam list-open-id-connect-providers | grep $oidc_id | cut -d "/" -f4

If not present, run:

bashCopyEditeksctl utils associate-iam-oidc-provider --cluster $cluster_name --approve

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🔧 Step 3: Install the AWS Load Balancer Controller

1. Download the IAM Policy:

bashCopyEditcurl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.11.0/docs/install/iam_policy.json

2. Create the IAM Policy:

bashCopyEditaws iam create-policy \
    --policy-name AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy \
    --policy-document file://iam_policy.json

3. Create IAM Role for the controller:

Replace <your-cluster-name> and <your-aws-account-id> with your actual values.

bashCopyEditeksctl create iamserviceaccount \
  --cluster=<your-cluster-name> \
  --namespace=kube-system \
  --name=aws-load-balancer-controller \
  --role-name AmazonEKSLoadBalancerControllerRole \
  --attach-policy-arn=arn:aws:iam::<your-aws-account-id>:policy/AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy \
  --approve

4. Install the ALB Controller using Helm:

bashCopyEdithelm repo add eks https://aws.github.io/eks-charts
helm repo update eks

Install the controller (replace placeholders):

bashCopyEdithelm install aws-load-balancer-controller eks/aws-load-balancer-controller \
  -n kube-system \
  --set clusterName=<your-cluster-name> \
  --set serviceAccount.create=false \
  --set serviceAccount.name=aws-load-balancer-controller \
  --set region=<region> \
  --set vpcId=<your-vpc-id>

5. Verify the deployment:

bashCopyEditkubectl get deployment -n kube-system aws-load-balancer-controller

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🎮 Step 4: Deploy the 2048 Game App using Ingress

1. Create a Fargate profile for the app:

bashCopyEditeksctl create fargateprofile \
    --cluster demo-cluster \
    --region us-east-1 \
    --name alb-sample-app \
    --namespace game-2048

2. Deploy the app, service, and Ingress:

bashCopyEditkubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.5.4/docs/examples/2048/2048_full.yaml

This includes:

• Deployment (2048 game)

• Service

• Ingress (for ALB routing)

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🌐 Step 5: Deploy Your Own Sample App (Optional)

1. Save the below as deploy.yaml:

yamlCopyEditapiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: eks-sample-linux-deployment
  labels:
    app: eks-sample-linux-app
spec:
  replicas: 3
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: eks-sample-linux-app
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: eks-sample-linux-app
    spec:
      affinity:
        nodeAffinity:
          requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
            nodeSelectorTerms:
            - matchExpressions:
              - key: kubernetes.io/arch
                operator: In
                values:
                - amd64
                - arm64
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: public.ecr.aws/nginx/nginx:1.23
        ports:
        - name: http
          containerPort: 80
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
      nodeSelector:
        kubernetes.io/os: linux

Deploy it:

bashCopyEditkubectl apply -f deploy.yaml

2. Save the below as service.yaml:

yamlCopyEditapiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: eks-sample-linux-service
  labels:
    app: eks-sample-linux-app
spec:
  selector:
    app: eks-sample-linux-app
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 80

Deploy the service:

bashCopyEditkubectl apply -f service.yaml

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✅ Conclusion

You’ve now:

• Set up a serverless EKS cluster using Fargate

• Installed AWS Load Balancer Controller with proper IAM roles

• Deployed the 2048 game and a custom app

• Used ALB Ingress to route traffic

This setup gives you production-grade deployment infrastructure with minimal compute management.