Prerequisites

• Before you can use any Docker Hardened Image, you must mirror the image repository from the catalog to your organization. To mirror the repository, select either Mirror to repository or View in repository > Mirror to repository, and then follow the on-screen instructions.
• To use the code snippets in this guide, replace <your-namespace> with your organization's namespace, <main-tag> with the main amazon-k8s-cni image tag, and <init-tag> with the amazon-k8s-cni-init image tag.
• This image is designed for use on AWS EKS clusters only. It requires the AWS VPC CNI infrastructure, including IAM permissions for ENI management and access to the AWS EC2 metadata service.

What's included in this amazon-k8s-cni image

• aws-vpc-cni — Main image entrypoint that bootstraps the aws-node container and starts the VPC CNI components
• aws-cni — Binary invoked by kubelet on every pod creation and deletion to physically wire up or tear down a pod's network namespace
• aws-k8s-agent — IPAMD daemon that maintains a warm pool of pre-allocated VPC IP addresses by managing ENI attachment and IP assignment on the node
• egress-cni — CNI plugin that gives pods the ability to reach endpoints via SNAT
• grpc-health-probe — Binary used as a Kubernetes exec liveness/readiness probe
• /app/10-aws.conflist — CNI configuration file defining the plugin chain
• /app/eni-max-pods.txt — Node-type to maximum pod count mapping used by the IPAMD daemon

Deploy the amazon-k8s-cni image

The amazon-k8s-cni image runs as a DaemonSet on each node in your AWS EKS cluster. It cannot be run standalone — it requires AWS infrastructure and a running EKS cluster.

First follow the authentication instructions for DHI in Kubernetes⁠.

Deploy with Helm (recommended)

The official eks-charts⁠ Helm chart for aws-vpc-cni supports overriding the image. Replace <your-namespace> with your mirrored image namespace. Use the main amazon-k8s-cni image for the aws-node container and the separate amazon-k8s-cni-init image for the init container.

$ helm repo add eks https://aws.github.io/eks-charts
$ helm repo update
$ helm upgrade --install aws-vpc-cni eks/aws-vpc-cni \
  --namespace kube-system \
  --set image.overrideRepository=<your-namespace>/dhi-amazon-k8s-cni \
  --set image.tag=<main-tag> \
  --set init.image.overrideRepository=<your-namespace>/dhi-amazon-k8s-cni-init \
  --set init.image.tag=<init-tag> \
  --set imagePullSecrets[0].name=<secret-name>

Keep the upstream split: image is the main aws-node container image, and init.image is the init container image that copies the CNI payload to the host.

Deploy with kubectl

If you manage the VPC CNI DaemonSet directly, update the image references in your existing DaemonSet manifest. The relevant containers to update are:

# Init container — copies CNI binaries to the node host
initContainers:
- name: aws-vpc-cni-init
  image: <your-namespace>/dhi-amazon-k8s-cni-init:<init-tag>
  # default entrypoint /init/aws-vpc-cni-init is used

# Main container — runs the IPAMD daemon
containers:
- name: aws-node
  image: <your-namespace>/dhi-amazon-k8s-cni:<main-tag>
  # default entrypoint /app/aws-vpc-cni is used

Preserve the upstream Kubernetes security settings when switching images. Although the DHI runtime image defaults to a nonroot user, the aws-node DaemonSet still needs the same privileged/root security context and hostPath mounts that the upstream deployment expects.

Image variants

Docker Hardened Images come in different variants depending on their intended use. Image variants are identified by their tag.

• Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:

  • Run as a nonroot user
  • Do not include a shell or a package manager
  • Contain only the minimal set of libraries needed to run the app

• Build-time variants typically include dev in the tag name and are intended for use in the first stage of a multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:

  • Run as the root user
  • Include a shell and package manager
  • Are used to build or compile applications

• FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure cryptographic operations. For example, usage of MD5 fails in FIPS variants.

To view the image variants and get more information about them, select the Tags tab for this repository, and then select a tag.

Migrate to a Docker Hardened Image

To migrate your application to a Docker Hardened Image, you must update your Dockerfile. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing Dockerfile to a Docker Hardened Image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.

The following steps outline the general migration process.

1. Find hardened images for your app.
2. Update the base image in your Dockerfile.
3. For multi-stage Dockerfiles, update the runtime image in your Dockerfile.
4. Install additional packages.

Troubleshooting migration

General debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Docker Hardened Images is to use Docker Debug⁠ to attach to these containers.

Permissions

By default image variants intended for runtime run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10.

No shell

By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage.

Entry point

Docker Hardened Images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Use docker inspect to inspect entry points for Docker Hardened Images and update your Dockerfile if necessary.