[EKS] [request]: Support EKS Auto components individually

[stevehipwell]

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Tell us about your request
I'd like to be able to use EKS Auto components on their own, specifically in this case the compute management via a managed Karpenter instance (see #1792). Ideally some of the constraints for individual components could be lifted when not running in full "auto" mode.

Which service(s) is this request for?
EKS

Tell us about the problem you're trying to solve. What are you trying to do, and why is it hard?
I want to be able to manage compute via Karpenter without needing to manually run compute as is required today (no I don't want to use Fargate).

Are you currently working around this issue?
Running compute via ASGs.

Additional context
n/a

Attachments
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[sftim]

This sounds like you'd like a set of Nodes where Karpenter might or might not run (depending on how you've configured other add-ons), but where those nodes don't specify a network plugin, or run CoreDNS, and might or might not support kube-proxy, and…

I think you may as well run Karpenter on a managed node group. If you're free to choose your own Pod network, there's no guarantee that Karpenter Pods can start. Managed would be hard to deliver.

[sftim]

I can imagine another option, though: don't run the add-ons as Pods. Karpenter likes to run in a container, but it doesn't have to.

[stevehipwell]

@sftim that's my point, Karpenter could be run as part of the control plane much like cloud controller manager. There also wouldn't need to be much if any compromises for Karpenter functionality in this mode.

[sftim]

Relevant detail: (AIUI) EKS Auto Mode doesn't run Karpenter as part of the control plane. It's not a small ask.