Multi-Region

ACK controllers can manage resources across multiple AWS regions using a single controller deployment.

Region Precedence

The controller determines the AWS region for a resource in this order:

1. Resource annotation - services.k8s.aws/region on the resource itself
2. Namespace annotation - services.k8s.aws/default-region on the namespace
3. Controller flag - --aws-region flag (configurable via Helm chart aws.region value)

The first match wins.

Configuration Options

Resource-Level Region

Override the region for a specific resource using the services.k8s.aws/region annotation:

apiVersion: dynamodb.services.k8s.aws/v1alpha1
kind: Table
metadata:
  name: users-east
  annotations:
    services.k8s.aws/region: us-east-1
spec:
  tableName: users-east
  billingMode: PAY_PER_REQUEST
  attributeDefinitions:
    - attributeName: id
      attributeType: S
  keySchema:
    - attributeName: id
      keyType: HASH

This creates the table in us-east-1 regardless of the controller's default region.

Namespace-Level Region

Set a default region for all resources in a namespace using the services.k8s.aws/default-region annotation:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: production
  annotations:
    services.k8s.aws/default-region: us-east-1

Or for existing namespaces:

kubectl annotate namespace production services.k8s.aws/default-region=us-east-1

Now all resources in the production namespace default to us-east-1:

apiVersion: dynamodb.services.k8s.aws/v1alpha1
kind: Table
metadata:
  name: orders
  namespace: production
spec:
  tableName: orders
  billingMode: PAY_PER_REQUEST
  attributeDefinitions:
    - attributeName: orderID
      attributeType: S
  keySchema:
    - attributeName: orderID
      keyType: HASH

Next Steps

• Advanced IAM roles - Use different IAM roles for different regions
• Create resources - Learn about resource creation