# Under the hood: how Amazon EKS Auto Mode detects, repairs, and diagnoses node failures

DevFeed: [Under the hood: how Amazon EKS Auto Mode detects, repairs, and diagnoses node failures](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/under-the-hood-how-amazon-eks-auto-mode-detects-repairs-and-diagnoses-node-failures-4633.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/containers/under-the-hood-how-amazon-eks-auto-mode-detects-repairs-and-diagnoses-node-failures/>)

Author: Sajjan Gundapuneedi

Published: 2026-08-05T18:48:18Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Containers](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/containers.md>)

Topics: [Amazon EKS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/amazon-eks.md>), [Kubernetes](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/kubernetes.md>), [Monitoring](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/monitoring.md>), [systemd](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/systemd.md>), [Cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud.md>)

Tags: [advanced-300](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/advanced-300.md>), [amazon-eks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/amazon-eks.md>), [amazon-elastic-kubernetes-service](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/amazon-elastic-kubernetes-service.md>), [cloud](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud.md>), [diagnostics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/diagnostics.md>), [kubernetes](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kubernetes.md>), [monitoring](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/monitoring.md>), [systemd](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/systemd.md>), [technical-how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/technical-how-to.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains how Amazon EKS Auto Mode detects, diagnoses, drains, and replaces failed Kubernetes nodes. It describes the collaboration between the Node Monitoring Agent and Karpenter, including system-level fault detection, repair policies, safety thresholds, and node diagnostics without SSH.

## Source excerpt

On Amazon EKS Auto Mode, node failures are detected, drained, and replaced automatically before anyone reaches for a laptop. This post shows how the Node Monitoring Agent and Karpenter form a detect-and-replace cycle that runs by default, why specific faults trigger node replacement, and how to collect node diagnostics without SSH.