Kubernetes clusters
Coming from another cloud?
▸AWS·Amazon EKS Cluster
Amazon EKS Cluster
- EKS control plane fully AWS-managed, single-tenant, across 3 AZs with auto scale/replace; on Quake AI you run the control plane on Nova instances, provisioned through Magnum or self-managed with OpenTofu, and you operate it.
- EKS regional API endpoint with SLA; Quake AI exposes the kube API via Neutron LB with floating IP.
- EKS charges a per-hour cluster platform fee on top of the underlying compute; Quake AI charges only for underlying Nova/Neutron/Cinder resources with no K8s platform fee.
- EKS managed nodes auto AMI updates, Spot integration; Quake AI self-managed nodes require manual OS image selection and update management.
▸Azure·AKS Cluster
AKS Cluster
- Azure automatically provisions and manages the control plane at no additional cost (Free tier) or fixed fee (Standard tier with SLA), offloading health monitoring and upgrades; on Quake AI you provision a cluster through Magnum (openstack coe cluster create) or self-managed Kubernetes on Nova instances (OpenTofu plus kubeadm, k3s, or RKE2), and you operate the cluster after creation.
- No OpenStack integration; uses Azure Resource Manager for cluster lifecycle.
- Pre-configured with Azure-specific defaults and add-ons like application routing.
- Managed via Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) with auto-scaling and upgrades; Quake AI uses Nova instances provisioned via OpenTofu with user-managed scaling and upgrades.
▸DigitalOcean·Kubernetes Cluster
Kubernetes Cluster
- Uses proprietary DigitalOcean API (POST /v2/kubernetes/clusters) for provisioning; Quake AI users provision Nova instances via OpenTofu and bootstrap Kubernetes manually (kubeadm, k3s).
- No cluster templates; direct specification of node pools in create request. Quake AI uses OpenTofu modules or IaC patterns to define cluster topology.
- Fully managed control plane at no cost (HA mode is a paid optional add-on); on Quake AI you provision the control plane through Magnum or self-managed on Nova instances and operate it yourself, including HA configuration.
- Node pools consist of identical Droplet-based worker nodes managed solely via kubectl (no SSH access); Quake AI nodes are Nova instances with full SSH access via keypair.
▸Google Cloud·GKE Cluster
GKE Cluster
- GKE provides Autopilot mode with fully managed node provisioning and scaling by Google; on Quake AI you provision clusters through Magnum or self-managed Kubernetes on Nova instances and manage node scaling yourself.
- Control plane is fully managed with automatic upgrades through release channels; Quake AI requires user-provisioned and user-managed control plane nodes.
- Cluster creation uses gcloud CLI vs OpenStack CLI (openstack coe cluster create).
- Custom machine types, spot VMs, accelerators in node pools; Quake AI K8s nodes use standard Nova flavors.
Kubernetes clusters
A Kubernetes cluster is a control plane plus worker nodes that run your container workloads. On Quake AI you provision clusters through the Kubernetes service (OpenStack Magnum) or by running Kubernetes on instances you manage yourself with kubeadm, k3s, or similar.
Managed offerings on AWS (EKS), Azure (AKS), and DigitalOcean (DOKS) hide the control plane. Quake AI exposes cluster templates and Nova-backed nodes; you operate upgrades, etcd backups, and control-plane sizing unless your template encodes those choices.
Mapping managed Kubernetes names#
| Provider | Their product | On Quake AI |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | EKS cluster | Magnum cluster or self-managed K8s on instances |
| Azure | AKS cluster | Magnum cluster or self-managed K8s on instances |
| Google Cloud | GKE cluster | Magnum cluster or self-managed K8s on instances |
| DigitalOcean | DOKS cluster | Magnum cluster or self-managed K8s on instances |
| Hetzner | Hetzner Kubernetes | Magnum cluster or self-managed K8s on instances |
Networking uses Neutron networks, routers, and security groups under the cluster. Kubernetes Services with type: LoadBalancer receive public endpoints through the cluster's cloud controller.
What to read next#
- Kubernetes on Quake AI: Magnum, templates, and operational split
- Create a cluster: Console cluster wizard
- Migrate from EKS: control plane and node pool cutover patterns
Quick answers
- Why does `openstack coe cluster create` fail with a Keystone trust or unauthorized error when I use an application credential?CLIAPITerraform
- Why does a Kubernetes LoadBalancer service stay `<pending>` for several minutes?CLI
- Why does my GitHub Actions or GitLab CI job fail to run `openstack coe` or `kubectl` on a Magnum cluster?CLI