Configure a Crossplane ProviderConfig for provider-aws using IRSA authentication on EKS
domain: docs.crossplane.io · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
On an EKS cluster with an IAM OIDC provider enabled, install the AWS provider with a Provider resource (apiVersion: pkg.crossplane.io/v1, kind: Provider, spec.package pointing at the desired provider-aws or provider-family-aws image).
Create a DeploymentRuntimeConfig (apiVersion: pkg.crossplane.io/v1beta1, kind: DeploymentRuntimeConfig) with spec.serviceAccountTemplate.metadata.annotations["eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn"]: <ROLE_ARN>, and reference it from the Provider via spec.runtimeConfigRef.name — this replaces the deprecated ControllerConfig/controllerConfigRef pattern from older tutorials.
Trust the EKS cluster's OIDC provider in the IAM role's trust policy, scoped to the provider's Kubernetes ServiceAccount subject (system:serviceaccount:<namespace>:<service-account-name>).
Create the ProviderConfig (apiVersion: aws.crossplane.io/v1beta1, kind: ProviderConfig) with spec.credentials.source: InjectedIdentity so the provider uses the ServiceAccount's injected IRSA token instead of a static key.
Reference the ProviderConfig from managed resources via spec.providerConfigRef.name, then confirm the provider pod is HEALTHY and that a test managed resource reaches SYNCED: True.
Known gotchas
ControllerConfig (pkg.crossplane.io/v1alpha1) is deprecated in favor of DeploymentRuntimeConfig (pkg.crossplane.io/v1beta1); IRSA guides that still reference controllerConfigRef are targeting an older Crossplane version.
Annotating an already-running provider pod's ServiceAccount with eks.amazonaws.com/role-arn doesn't retroactively inject credentials — the EKS pod identity webhook only mutates pods at creation, so the provider pod must be recreated after the annotation is applied.
The monolithic crossplane-contrib/provider-aws and the newer split provider-family-aws plus per-service providers (e.g. provider-aws-eks, provider-aws-s3) expose ProviderConfig under different API groups and install very different CRD counts; mixing them or assuming one ProviderConfig works for both is a common source of confusion.
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