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AWS DevOps Checklist

EKS Platform Setup & GitOps Automation

15 min read • Updated 2026-01-07

Checklist Overview

This checklist provides a step-by-step guide for AWS DevOps consultants implementing EKS platform setup and GitOps automation. Each phase includes specific tasks with priority, effort, and impact ratings.

The checklist is based on proven patterns from infrastructure transformations that enabled $30M+ acquisitions. Use it as a roadmap for 8-12 week AWS DevOps engagements.

Why AWS DevOps Consulting?

Many startups struggle with slow deployment cycles and manual infrastructure management. AWS DevOps consulting addresses these challenges by implementing automated CI/CD pipelines and GitOps workflows on EKS.

Without proper AWS DevOps setup, teams face:

  • •Manual deployment processes taking weeks instead of hours
  • •Lack of Infrastructure as Code leading to configuration drift
  • •No GitOps automation, requiring manual Kubernetes management
  • •Inconsistent environments between development and production
  • •Limited observability making debugging and optimization difficult

AWS DevOps Solution Approach

This checklist implements a production-ready AWS DevOps platform using EKS, GitOps (ArgoCD), and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform). The approach prioritizes automation, observability, and team enablement.

Each phase builds on the previous one, ensuring a stable foundation before adding complexity. The checklist is designed for AWS DevOps consultants working with startup engineering teams.

Platform Architecture

  1. EKS cluster setup (multi-AZ, production + staging environments)
  2. GitOps automation with ArgoCD for deployment workflows
  3. Infrastructure as Code with Terraform for all AWS resources
  4. CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions or GitLab CI
  5. Observability stack with Prometheus, Grafana, and CloudWatch integration
  6. Service mesh integration (Istio or App Mesh) for microservices
  7. Self-service developer platform for team autonomy

AWS DevOps Implementation Checklist

Phase 1: EKS Cluster Setup (Weeks 1-2)

  • □
    Design EKS cluster architecture (single vs multi-cluster strategy)
    Priority: high • Effort: 2-3 days • Impact: high
  • □
    Create EKS cluster in multiple availability zones
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Configure node groups (managed vs self-managed)
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Set up IAM roles and policies for EKS access
    Priority: high • Effort: 4 hours • Impact: high
  • □
    Configure network security (VPC, subnets, security groups)
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Set up storage classes and persistent volumes
    Priority: medium • Effort: 4 hours • Impact: medium
  • □
    Create staging environment cluster
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Test cluster connectivity and basic deployments
    Priority: high • Effort: 4 hours • Impact: medium
Success Metrics:
  • ✓EKS cluster accessible and responding to kubectl commands
  • ✓Node groups healthy and auto-scaling configured
  • ✓Network connectivity verified between pods
  • ✓Staging environment matching production configuration

Phase 2: GitOps & Infrastructure as Code (Weeks 3-4)

  • □
    Set up ArgoCD for GitOps workflows
    Priority: high • Effort: 2 days • Impact: high
  • □
    Create Git repository structure for application configs
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Implement Terraform for EKS infrastructure
    Priority: high • Effort: 3 days • Impact: high
  • □
    Configure Terraform state management (S3 backend)
    Priority: high • Effort: 4 hours • Impact: high
  • □
    Set up ArgoCD application definitions
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Configure ArgoCD sync policies and auto-sync
    Priority: medium • Effort: 4 hours • Impact: medium
  • □
    Implement ArgoCD rollback and sync strategies
    Priority: medium • Effort: 4 hours • Impact: medium
  • □
    Document GitOps workflow and developer onboarding
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: medium
Success Metrics:
  • ✓ArgoCD deployed and managing application syncs
  • ✓Terraform infrastructure reproducible and version-controlled
  • ✓Sample application deployed via GitOps workflow
  • ✓Team trained on GitOps deployment process

Phase 3: CI/CD Pipeline Setup (Weeks 5-6)

  • □
    Set up GitHub Actions or GitLab CI pipeline
    Priority: high • Effort: 2 days • Impact: high
  • □
    Configure automated testing (unit, integration, e2e)
    Priority: high • Effort: 2 days • Impact: high
  • □
    Implement container image building and pushing to ECR
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Set up automated security scanning (container images)
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: medium
  • □
    Configure deployment triggers (on push, tags, manual)
    Priority: high • Effort: 4 hours • Impact: high
  • □
    Implement blue-green or canary deployment strategies
    Priority: medium • Effort: 2 days • Impact: medium
  • □
    Set up automated rollback mechanisms
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: medium
  • □
    Create CI/CD documentation and runbooks
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: low
Success Metrics:
  • ✓CI/CD pipeline building and deploying applications automatically
  • ✓Automated tests running on every commit
  • ✓Deployment time reduced to under 2 hours
  • ✓Zero manual deployment steps required

Phase 4: Observability & Monitoring (Weeks 7-8)

  • □
    Deploy Prometheus for metrics collection
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Set up Grafana dashboards for visualization
    Priority: high • Effort: 2 days • Impact: high
  • □
    Configure CloudWatch integration for AWS metrics
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: medium
  • □
    Implement distributed tracing (Jaeger or AWS X-Ray)
    Priority: medium • Effort: 2 days • Impact: medium
  • □
    Set up log aggregation (CloudWatch Logs or ELK)
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Configure alerting rules and notification channels
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Create SRE runbooks for common incidents
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: medium
  • □
    Train team on observability tools and dashboards
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: low
Success Metrics:
  • ✓Metrics, logs, and traces visible in dashboards
  • ✓Alerts configured for critical system events
  • ✓Team able to debug issues using observability tools
  • ✓SLOs defined and monitored

Phase 5: Service Mesh & Advanced Features (Weeks 9-10)

  • □
    Evaluate and select service mesh (Istio vs App Mesh vs Linkerd)
    Priority: medium • Effort: 2 days • Impact: medium
  • □
    Deploy service mesh to EKS cluster
    Priority: medium • Effort: 2 days • Impact: medium
  • □
    Configure service-to-service authentication (mTLS)
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: medium
  • □
    Implement traffic management (routing, splitting, mirroring)
    Priority: low • Effort: 2 days • Impact: low
  • □
    Set up API gateway for external traffic
    Priority: medium • Effort: 2 days • Impact: medium
  • □
    Configure auto-scaling (HPA, VPA, cluster autoscaler)
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Implement network policies for pod-to-pod security
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: medium
Success Metrics:
  • ✓Service mesh managing inter-service communication
  • ✓Auto-scaling responding to traffic patterns
  • ✓Network policies enforcing security boundaries
  • ✓Traffic management enabling blue-green deployments

Phase 6: Self-Service Platform & Team Enablement (Weeks 11-12)

  • □
    Create developer onboarding documentation
    Priority: high • Effort: 2 days • Impact: high
  • □
    Set up self-service namespace provisioning
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: medium
  • □
    Implement RBAC policies for team access
    Priority: high • Effort: 1 day • Impact: high
  • □
    Create developer tools and scripts (local dev setup)
    Priority: medium • Effort: 2 days • Impact: medium
  • □
    Conduct team training on EKS, GitOps, and CI/CD
    Priority: high • Effort: 2 days • Impact: high
  • □
    Document incident response and on-call procedures
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: medium
  • □
    Create architecture decision records (ADRs)
    Priority: low • Effort: 1 day • Impact: low
  • □
    Conduct platform maturity assessment
    Priority: medium • Effort: 1 day • Impact: medium
Success Metrics:
  • ✓Team members able to deploy applications independently
  • ✓Developer onboarding time reduced by 50%
  • ✓Platform documentation complete and accessible
  • ✓Team confident using new DevOps workflows

Expected Results

  • •Production-ready EKS platform with multi-AZ deployment
  • •GitOps automation enabling 2-hour deployment cycles
  • •Infrastructure as Code with full reproducibility
  • •CI/CD pipeline automating testing and deployment
  • •Observability stack providing full system visibility
  • •Self-service developer platform enabling team autonomy
  • •25-40% reduction in deployment time
  • •Zero manual infrastructure management required

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