GKE on AWS (previous generation) will be deprecated as of April 1, 2023.
What this means
GKE on AWS (previous generation) is being replaced by the next generation of Anthos Clusters on AWS. Google will cease maintenance and contracted support for the previous generation product when maintenance mode ends.
The schedule below lists the significant dates in this transition.
- Jan 1, 2022: Maintenance mode starts
- Google continues to fix bugs, support new Kubernetes versions, and resolve CVEs during this phase
- Google support contracts continue as before
- No new functionality will be added except as needed to fix bugs
- The previous generation product can still be used to reinstall existing installations, but should not be used for new clusters in new environments
- April 1, 2023: Product deprecation completes
- No further upgrades or bug fixes occur
- All GKE on AWS installations should migrate to the current generation of Anthos Clusters on AWS well before this point
Why we're doing this
Google is committed to providing the best possible Kubernetes management experience for our customers. Our new generation of GKE on AWS offers a richer feature set, simplified installation and configuration, and greater security. And through its integration with Google Cloud console, it participates in Google's consolidated dashboard for unified monitoring and maintenance of clusters in all the cloud environments that Google supports.
What you should do now
Google support has notified our customers of this schedule, so you may have started planning your migration strategy already. We recommend beginning this process if you haven't already.
As your first step, contact Google support. Our customer engineers are committed to making this migration a simple and straightforward process for all our customers.
General upgrade strategy
Your upgrade strategy must be tailored to your environment, but the broad strategy will be similar for most customers:
Upgrade your existing previous generation clusters to Kubernetes v1.21. This version is supported on both the previous and current generation of GKE on AWS.
Deploy current generation clusters with identical Kubernetes configurations. Consider using Config Management to ensure identical configurations across your old and new clusters.
Deploy a single service on your new cluster, and update the DNS settings for your previous generation cluster to point to the same services on the new cluster.
Test the service on the new cluster.
Repeat these two steps for your remaining services.
After all services have been migrated and tested, decommission the previous generation cluster and management service.
Contact Cloud Customer Care
Your account's lead customer engineer is your best contact point for migration support. Alternatively, you can file a support case through Google Cloud console. Your request will be routed to your account's customer engineering group.