How-to Guides

AWS Integration

Connect an AWS account so Kubeadapt reflects your Reserved Instances and Savings Plans in node pricing.

On-demand and spot instance pricing works by default, no configuration needed. To reflect Reserved Instance and Savings Plan discounts in node pricing, connect your AWS account.

Pricing Type	Setup Required	How It Works	Status
On-Demand	None	Fetched from AWS pricing APIs	Supported
Spot	None	Real-time spot prices per region, AZ, and instance type	Supported
Reserved Instances	Cloud account connection	Read via Cost Explorer API	Implemented
Savings Plans	Cloud account connection	Read via Cost Explorer API	Implemented

Connecting Your AWS Account

Connecting your AWS account unlocks two things:

RI/SP cost attribution: Your Reserved Instance and Savings Plan commitments are reflected in per-node pricing.
EKS cluster auto-discovery: Your EKS clusters are automatically detected and listed in the Clusters tab.

How It Works

When you connect your account, a bash script creates a cross-account IAM role in your AWS account. Kubeadapt assumes this role to read data. Nothing is written or modified.

Step 1: Open the Cloud Accounts Tab

Navigate to Clusters → Cloud Accounts in the Kubeadapt dashboard and click Add Cloud Integration.

Step 2: Select AWS

Choose Amazon Web Services from the provider list.

Step 3: Name and Permissions

Give your integration a name. This is just a label for the Cloud Accounts table (e.g. "AWS" or your company name). If the account is a management account, member accounts get their names from AWS Organizations automatically.

Choose a permission level:

Level	Policy	Best For
Full Read-Only (default)	AWS managed `ReadOnlyAccess`	Broadest visibility: cost analysis, resource discovery, EKS cluster detection
Minimal	Custom inline policy	Least privilege: only EKS, EC2, Cost Explorer, CloudWatch, Savings Plans

Minimal permission details

The minimal policy includes:

EC2: DescribeInstances, DescribeReservedInstances, DescribeRegions, DescribeVolumes, and related read actions
EKS: ListClusters, DescribeCluster, ListNodegroups, DescribeNodegroup
Cost Explorer: GetCostAndUsage, GetSavingsPlansUtilization, GetReservationUtilization
CloudWatch: ListMetrics, GetMetricData
Savings Plans: Describe*, List*
Auto Scaling: DescribeAutoScalingGroups, DescribeLaunchConfigurations
Organizations: ListAccounts, DescribeOrganization

Step 4: Run the Setup Script

Kubeadapt generates a bash script for your integration. Copy it and run it in a terminal with AWS CLI access to the target account.

The script will:

Create an IAM role (kubeadapt-integration-role) with a trust policy scoped to Kubeadapt
Attach the selected permissions
For management accounts, extend the role to all member accounts
Report back to Kubeadapt automatically

Step 5: Verify

Kubeadapt polls automatically for the setup to complete. Once detected:

The connection status changes to Connected
Your EKS clusters appear in the Clusters tab
RI/SP cost data appears within ~15 minutes

You can also click Verify Manually if you prefer not to wait for auto-detection.

Managing Cloud Accounts

Connected accounts appear in the Cloud Accounts table with:

Status: Connected, Pending, Failed, or Disconnected
Type: Management (with expandable member accounts) or standalone Account
Actions: Verify Connection, Sync Members (management accounts), or Delete

AWS Organizations

When you connect a management account:

You can Sync Members anytime to pick up newly added accounts
Deleting a management account removes all associated member accounts

Verification

To confirm everything is working, check the Clusters page in the dashboard:

On-demand/Spot pricing: Node costs should appear immediately after agent installation
RI/SP attribution (optional): After connecting your cloud account, node-level costs reflect your commitment discounts within ~15 minutes

Removing the Integration

To disconnect your AWS account:

Go to Clusters → Cloud Accounts
Click the actions menu (⋯) on the integration and select Delete
A dialog shows an uninstall command. Run it in your AWS account to remove the IAM role

For management accounts, this also cleans up the CloudFormation StackSet and member account roles.

Troubleshooting

Verification fails after running the script

Make sure the AWS CLI session has the correct account and region
Check that the IAM role was created: aws iam get-role --role-name kubeadapt-integration-role
For management accounts, verify the StackSet deployed: aws cloudformation describe-stack-set --stack-set-name kubeadapt-member-roles

RI/SP data not showing

Cost Explorer can take up to 24 hours to populate initial data in a fresh account
Verify the IAM role has ce:GetReservationUtilization and ce:GetSavingsPlansUtilization permissions
Check that the integration status is Connected in Cloud Accounts

EKS clusters not discovered

Ensure the IAM role has eks:ListClusters and eks:DescribeCluster permissions
If using Minimal permissions, verify the policy was applied correctly

Next Steps

Quick Start Guide: Install the Kubeadapt agent
Cost Attribution: How costs are calculated
Right-sizing: Optimization recommendations