Deploying the Classic 2048 Game on Amazon EKS with Fargate and ALB 🚀

Hey there! Today we will learn how to deploy a simple 2048 gaming application using Application Load Balancer (ALB) for handling incoming external traffic on Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) with Fargate for serverless experience. If you’re new to Kubernetes or AWS, don’t worry — I’ll walk you through each step. Let’s jump in!

Prerequisites:

kubectl — https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/

eksctl — https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/install-kubectl.html#eksctl-install-update

AWS CLI — https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/install-awscli.html

Once these are installed, use the following command to configure your AWS credentials.

aws configure

Steps to Deployment

1. Create EKS Cluster:

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

This command creates an EKS cluster named "demo-cluster-1" in the us-east-1 region using Fargate.

Now Update your local kubeconfig file to connect with kubectl .

aws eks --region us-east-1 update-kubeconfig --name demo-cluster-1

This will connect your cluster with kubectl command line you will avail to control your cluster using kubectl command.

2. Create Fargate Profile and Namespace:

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

This command prepares your cluster to run the application in a serverless Fargate environment and creates a dedicated namespace (game-2048) for it.

3. Deploy the 2048 Game Application:

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

In this URL are the Deployment, Service, and Ingress resources for the 2048 game application that was already created previously.

Here is the complete breakdown of the YAML file below:

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: game-2048
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  namespace: game-2048
  name: deployment-2048
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app.kubernetes.io/name: app-2048
  replicas: 5
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app.kubernetes.io/name: app-2048
    spec:
      containers:
      - image: public.ecr.aws/l6m2t8p7/docker-2048:latest
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        name: app-2048
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  namespace: game-2048
  name: service-2048
spec:
  ports:
    - port: 80
      targetPort: 80
      protocol: TCP
  type: NodePort
  selector:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: app-2048
---
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  namespace: game-2048
  name: ingress-2048
  annotations:
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/scheme: internet-facing
    alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/target-type: ip
spec:
  ingressClassName: alb
  rules:
    - http:
        paths:
        - path: /
          pathType: Prefix
          backend:
            service:
              name: service-2048
              port:
                number: 80

4. Configure IAM OIDC Provider and Policy:

Now Associate an IAM OIDC provider with your cluster:

eksctl utils associate-iam-oidc-provider --cluster demo-cluster-1 --approve

• Than Create an IAM policy for the AWS Load Balancer Controller:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller/v2.5.4/docs/install/iam_policy.json
aws iam create-policy \
    --policy-name AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy \
    --policy-document file://iam_policy.json

This command will create the IAM Policy that is needed to seemingly run the application.

5. Create IAM Role and Service Account:

• Now you have to Create an IAM role and service account for the controller using this command :

eksctl create iamserviceaccount \
    --cluster=demo-cluster-1 \
    --namespace=kube-system \
    --name=aws-load-balancer-controller-1 \
    --role-name AmazonEKSLoadBalancerControllerRole \
    --attach-policy-arn=arn:aws:iam::YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID:policy/AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy \
    --approve

• Important: Replace YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID and YOUR_IAM_ROLE_ARN with your values.

This command will create the IAM Service account and Attach the Policy to AWS LoadBalencerControler

6. Deploy AWS Load Balancer Controller:

helm repo add eks https://aws.github.io/eks-charts
helm repo update eks
helm install aws-load-balancer-controller eks/aws-load-balancer-controller -n kube-system \
    --set clusterName=demo-cluster-1 \
    --set serviceAccount.create=false \
    --set serviceAccount.name=aws-load-balancer-controller-1 \
    --set region=us-east-1 \
    --set vpcId=YOUR_VPC_ID \

This will create the application Load Balancer and expose the application onto the internet and you user will access the app using a single endpoint

6. Verify and Access the Application:

kubectl get ingress -n game-2048

Note the load balancer DNS name and open it in your web browser to play the 2048 game!

Congratulations you have successfully deployed an game on the Kubernetes cluster.

Now Let's break down how to remove each resource created during this deployment process.

1. Delete the Application Resources:

• Ingress , Service and Deployment

kubectl delete ingress ingress-2048 -n game-2048
kubectl delete service service-2048 -n game-2048
kubectl delete deployment deployment-2048 -n game-2048

• Namespace:

kubectl delete namespace game-2048

2. Delete Load Balancer Controller:

helm uninstall aws-load-balancer-controller -n kube-system

3. Delete IAM Resources:

• IAM Service Account:

eksctl delete iamserviceaccount --cluster=demo-cluster-1 --namespace=kube-system --name=aws-load-balancer-controller-1

• IAM Policy:

aws iam delete-policy --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID:policy/AWSLoadBalancerControllerIAMPolicy

4. Delete EKS Cluster:

eksctl delete cluster --name demo-cluster-1

Conclusion

This project involves running a simple gaming service on Amazon EKS using Fargate and Kubernetes Ingress. The AWS ALB Ingress Controller manages traffic to an application through an Application Load Balancer, which enables access over the Internet.

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