Clusters
A cluster is the unit of infrastructure you deploy onto. Ownkube supports two shapes: Starter (K3s on one AWS instance), and Production (managed EKS, highly available across availability zones). Both run inside your own AWS account on upstream Kubernetes.
Choosing a cluster shape
Section titled “Choosing a cluster shape”Quick decision guide
Section titled “Quick decision guide”| You want… | Pick |
|---|---|
| The cheapest way onto Ownkube | Starter |
| A dev or staging environment | Starter |
| A side project that runs unlimited apps on one AWS instance | Starter |
| High availability across availability zones | Production |
| Autoscaling from 1 to 100+ nodes | Production |
| Isolated production workloads | Production |
| To start small and add Production later | Starter first, then add Production |
You can run both at the same time in the same organization. Dev workloads on Starter, production on Production.
Starter (K3s)
Section titled “Starter (K3s)”A single EC2 instance running lightweight Kubernetes. One node runs every app, worker, and database you deploy to it. Free Ownkube platform fee, you only pay AWS for the EC2 instance.
What you get
Section titled “What you get”- One EC2 instance (you pick the size) with a public IP
- 50 GiB of gp3 storage
- Automatic TLS and a load-balanced public hostname per web deployment
- One-click Postgres (single instance, local storage)
- All your apps, workers, and jobs on the same node
Instance options
Section titled “Instance options”| Instance | vCPU | Memory | Rough EC2 cost | Comfortably runs | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
t3.medium | 2 | 4 GiB | ~$30 / mo | 1-2 apps + 1 small db | First app, low-traffic side project |
t3.large | 2 | 8 GiB | ~$60 / mo | 2-3 apps + 1 db | Small production web + Postgres |
t3.xlarge | 4 | 16 GiB | ~$120 / mo | 4-6 apps + 1-2 dbs | Multi-service workloads |
t3.2xlarge | 8 | 32 GiB | ~$240 / mo | 8-12 apps + 2-3 dbs | Busy multi-app node |
No Ownkube platform fee on top, you pay AWS only. AWS Activate and other startup credits cover these EC2 costs in full. “Apps” assumes typical web or worker sizing; heavier workloads will fit fewer per node.
Create a K3s cluster
Section titled “Create a K3s cluster”Open the create-cluster wizard from your dashboard and select Deploy on EC2. See Create a cluster for the walkthrough.
Production (EKS)
Section titled “Production (EKS)”Managed Kubernetes, highly available across availability zones. Ownkube provisions a VPC, subnets, the EKS control plane, and a workload node group that autoscales based on load.
What you get
Section titled “What you get”- Managed Kubernetes control plane (AWS-managed, highly available across availability zones)
- Workload node autoscaling. Grows to fit your deployments, shrinks when idle.
- Managed Postgres with backups, scheduled snapshots, and connection pooling
- Load balancing and automatic TLS for public deployments
- Platform upgrades you can roll out on your schedule
Pricing
Section titled “Pricing”Metered on your deployments’ requested vCPU and memory, not the nodes themselves.
- $5 / vCPU / month (requested)
- $1 / GB RAM / month (requested)
- Pro-rated per second, billed from the first second
AWS charges you directly for the underlying compute (control plane, EC2 workloads, NAT gateway, etc.) at their standard rates. No markup from Ownkube.
Sizing
Section titled “Sizing”In the Compute step of the create-cluster wizard you pick a starting capacity:
- Workload vCPUs, 2 to 128, default 8
- Memory, 4 to 256 GiB, default 16
These are starting sizes. The node pool autoscales up and down as your deployments grow. You can change the floor from the cluster’s detail page at any time.
Region and Kubernetes version
Section titled “Region and Kubernetes version”- Region, any of the 17 supported AWS regions (us-east-1/2, us-west-1/2, eu-west-1/2/3, eu-central-1, eu-north-1, ap-south-1, ap-southeast-1/2, ap-northeast-1/2/3, sa-east-1, ca-central-1)
- Kubernetes version, pick from 1.35, 1.34, or 1.33 at creation time (see the upstream release schedule)
Create an EKS cluster
Section titled “Create an EKS cluster”Open the create-cluster wizard from your dashboard and select Deploy on EKS. See Create a cluster for the walkthrough.
The cluster detail page
Section titled “The cluster detail page”Every cluster has a detail page in your dashboard with three tabs.
Overview
Section titled “Overview”Live status, uptime, region, Kubernetes version, deployment count, and telemetry (nodes, vCPU, memory). If there are no deployments yet, a Deploy a sample app nudge appears here.
Registries
Section titled “Registries”Container registries connected at the organization level, with per-cluster status.
Settings
Section titled “Settings”Compute (EKS only)
Current workload capacity, last-synced timestamp, and a Reconcile button that re-syncs actual capacity from the cluster. A warning shows if the data is more than 15 minutes stale.
Networking
VPC ID, pods CIDR, and services CIDR. What you chose at creation time.
Cluster platform version
Upgrade the cluster’s platform version to a newer release. The dropdown only shows versions newer than what you’re running. Downgrades aren’t supported because platform migrations are forward-only. See Platform upgrades below.
Health check
Last health-check timestamp and status, with a Validate button that checks for configuration drift.
Danger zone
Destroy cluster permanently removes everything. Blocked if active deployments exist; you have to delete the deployments first. There’s a name-confirm prompt to prevent mis-clicks.
Platform upgrades
Section titled “Platform upgrades”Ownkube ships a Cluster platform version that keeps your cluster and workloads current. It covers the cluster-wide system components (ingress, TLS, metrics, networking).
When a new version ships, you see it in the UI on the cluster detail page. Apply the upgrade from there on your own schedule.
Upgrades are designed so they don’t affect deployment quality. Rollouts are gradual and drain-safe, and we test upgrade paths before they reach your cluster. If an upgrade does misbehave, it will not take your workloads down with it.