Observed limitations¶

EKS auto mode¶

EKS auto mode is not supported yet

VPC resource is missing in AWS¶

.spec.vpc.id is set but VPC resource is missing in AWS; failed to describe VPC resources. (might be in creation process): failed to query ec2 for VPCs: operation error EC2: DescribeVpcs, exceeded maximum number of attempts, 3, Probable clock skew error

Permissions?

See https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-aws/issues/4191

Nat gateways¶

It is not possible to configure only 1 Nat gateway en a 3 zone eks cluster

https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-aws/issues/1323 https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-aws/issues/1484

Regional NAT gateway not supported¶

AWS announced regional NAT gateways in November 2025. A regional NAT gateway spans multiple AZs automatically without requiring a public subnet per AZ. CAPA does not support this mode yet. There is an open feature request:

https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-aws/issues/5790

MachinePools and AWSManagedMachinePool maturity¶

Is it mature?

Auth with empty clusters¶

It is neccesary to configure authentication in the controller when no kubernetes clusters are deployed yet. See Management Cluster for details on controller credential options.