# Enable Enhanced Container Insights (Classic) from the console
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You can enable Enhanced Container Insights (Classic) directly from the Amazon EKS console. This approach installs the Amazon CloudWatch Observability add-on (version prior to v6.2.0) with the Classic metric pipeline. This is ideal if you prefer a UI-driven experience and want to enable observability without writing infrastructure code or running CLI commands.

**Recommendation**  
For new deployments, we recommend [OTel Container Insights (Recommended)](container-insights-eks-otel.md), which uses add-on version 6.2.0 or later with the OTel-based pipeline.

## Prerequisites
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Before you enable Enhanced Container Insights (Classic) from the console, verify that you meet the following requirements.
+ You are signed in to the Amazon EKS console.
+ An existing Amazon EKS cluster running Kubernetes version 1.25 or later.
+ The `amazon-cloudwatch-observability` add-on version must be prior to v6.2.0 (for example, v5.4.0).
+ IAM permissions: `eks:DescribeCluster`, `eks:UpdateClusterConfig`, `eks:ListAddons`, `eks:CreateAddon`, `eks:DescribeAddon`, `iam:AttachRolePolicy`, and `iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole`.
+ The node IAM role must have the `CloudWatchAgentServerPolicy` managed policy attached.
+ The cluster is in `ACTIVE` state.

## Enable Enhanced Container Insights (Classic)
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Use the following procedure to enable Enhanced Container Insights (Classic) from the Amazon EKS console.

**To enable Enhanced Container Insights (Classic) by using the console**

1. Open the Amazon EKS console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/eks/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/eks/).

1. Choose **Clusters**, and then choose your cluster name.

1. Choose the **Observability** tab.

1. Next to **Container Insights** status, choose **Manage**.

1. Select **Enhanced Container Insights**, and then choose **Enable**.

The console installs the add-on with the Classic configuration. Metrics appear in the `ContainerInsights` namespace within 3 to 5 minutes.

## Verify that data appears in CloudWatch
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After you enable Enhanced Container Insights (Classic), data appears in CloudWatch within 3 to 5 minutes.

**To verify Container Insights data**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Metrics**, and then choose **All metrics**.

1. Choose the **ContainerInsights** namespace.

1. Verify that metrics such as `pod_cpu_utilization` and `node_memory_utilization` appear for your cluster.

## Next steps
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After you enable Enhanced Container Insights (Classic), you can explore the following topics.
+ For AWS CLI and advanced setup options, see [Setup guide (AWS CLI)](container-insights-eks-classic-setup.md).
+ For information about the metrics that Enhanced Container Insights (Classic) collects, see [Enhanced Container Insights (Classic) metric reference](container-insights-eks-classic-metrics.md).
+ To migrate to OTel Container Insights, see [Migrate from Enhanced Container Insights (Classic) to OTel Container Insights](container-insights-eks-migrate-from-classic.md).
+ For more information about OTel Container Insights, see [OTel Container Insights (Recommended)](container-insights-eks-otel.md).