Hello all! Looking for a gut check here: If I use Launch Templates with EKS Node Groups, do I need to set everything or with defaults get set "for me"? • I'm currently building an EKS cluster using mostly crosswalk APIs • I need to now add nodes to the cluster using AWS capacity blocks • I think that means I now have to use a launch template to set the capacity reservation info • It's unclear to me how much of the previous generated launch template I now need to make myself. For example, do I have to set the user data myself or will that get set by pulumi/aws as reasonable defaults? I'm about to go testing on my own, but thought maybe someone where could save me some investigation. Thanks!

The only mandatory value is name, and that's generated by Pulumi, so you don't need any parameters to a LaunchTemplate: https://www.pulumi.com/registry/packages/aws/api-docs/ec2/launchtemplate/ userData is particular is definitely not something that would be required. Generally, don't use userData except when you have no other choice, or when you're looking for the short-term simple solution, such as during a proof of concept.

This depends on what node groups you're using. If you're using self-managed node groups you need to specify the whole launch template, including the necessary user data script so the nodes can connect to the cluster. If you use EKS managed node groups, the launch template will get merged with defaults EKS sets. EKS will not do that in case you specify a custom AMI ID in the launch template.

Thank you!