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# Manage `kube-proxy` in Amazon EKS clusters
<a name="managing-kube-proxy"></a>

**Tip**  
With Amazon EKS Auto Mode, you don’t need to install or upgrade networking add-ons. Auto Mode includes pod networking and load balancing capabilities.  
For more information, see [Automate cluster infrastructure with EKS Auto Mode](automode.md).

We recommend adding the Amazon EKS type of the add-on to your cluster instead of using the self-managed type of the add-on. If you’re not familiar with the difference between the types, see [Amazon EKS add-ons](eks-add-ons.md). For more information about adding an Amazon EKS add-on to your cluster, see [Create an Amazon EKS add-on](creating-an-add-on.md). If you’re unable to use the Amazon EKS add-on, we encourage you to submit an issue about why you can’t to the [Containers roadmap GitHub repository](https://github.com/aws/containers-roadmap/issues).

The `kube-proxy` add-on is deployed on each Amazon EC2 node in your Amazon EKS cluster. It maintains network rules on your nodes and enables network communication to your Pods. The add-on isn’t deployed to Fargate nodes in your cluster. For more information, see [kube-proxy](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/command-line-tools-reference/kube-proxy/) in the Kubernetes documentation.

## Install as Amazon EKS Add-on
<a name="_install_as_amazon_eks_add_on"></a>

## `kube-proxy` versions
<a name="kube-proxy-versions"></a>

The following table lists the latest version of the Amazon EKS add-on type for each Kubernetes version.


| Kubernetes version |  `kube-proxy` version | 
| --- | --- | 
| 1.35 | v1.35.3-eksbuild.5 | 
| 1.34 | v1.34.6-eksbuild.5 | 
| 1.33 | v1.33.10-eksbuild.5 | 
| 1.32 | v1.32.13-eksbuild.8 | 
| 1.31 | v1.31.14-eksbuild.12 | 
| 1.30 | v1.30.14-eksbuild.30 | 

**Note**  
An earlier version of the documentation was incorrect. `kube-proxy` versions `v1.28.5`, `v1.27.9`, and `v1.26.12` aren’t available.  
If you’re self-managing this add-on, the versions in the table might not be the same as the available self-managed versions.

## `kube-proxy` container image
<a name="managing-kube-proxy-images"></a>

The `kube-proxy` container image is based on a [minimal base image](https://gallery.ecr.aws/eks-distro-build-tooling/eks-distro-minimal-base-iptables) maintained by Amazon EKS Distro, which contains minimal packages and doesn’t have shells. For more information, see [Amazon EKS Distro](https://distro.eks.amazonaws.com/).

The following table lists the latest available self-managed `kube-proxy` container image version for each Amazon EKS cluster version.


| Version | kube-proxy | 
| --- | --- | 
| 1.35 | v1.35.3-eksbuild.2 | 
| 1.34 | v1.34.6-eksbuild.2 | 
| 1.33 | v1.33.10-minimal-eksbuild.2 | 
| 1.32 | v1.32.13-minimal-eksbuild.5 | 
| 1.31 | v1.31.14-minimal-eksbuild.9 | 
| 1.30 | v1.30.14-minimal-eksbuild.28 | 

When you [update an Amazon EKS add-on type](updating-an-add-on.md), you specify a valid Amazon EKS add-on version, which might not be a version listed in this table. This is because [Amazon EKS add-on](workloads-add-ons-available-eks.md#add-ons-kube-proxy) versions don’t always match container image versions specified when updating the self-managed type of this add-on. When you update the self-managed type of this add-on, you specify a valid container image version listed in this table.