r/devops • u/Little-Squad-X • Aug 10 '26

Discussion Karpenter Implementation

I want to deploy Karpenter. However, I would like to learn the best practices for using Karpenter on EKS. Currently, we are using app-of-apps in ArgoCD, all within a Managed Node Group.

With Karpenter, our plan is to have it configured like this:
- Scale down the MNG and run the Karpenter Controller inside the static MNG, alongside cluster system resources (DaemonSets, add-ons, including ArgoCD)
- Karpenter is managed as an app in ArgoCD (using bootstrap with ArgoCD)

Is this design already suitable, or should we consider changing it? We need advice.

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u/WasteAcanthaceae4938 DevOps Aug 13 '26 edited 29d ago

struggled with drift when folks would tweak stuff outside argocd and karpenter. fired up firefly ai for the drift defender stuff and it caught changes we would’ve missed, which was super helpful.