Currently, the official Karpenter controller images (e.g., v1.12.0) are built using an Amazon Linux 2 (AL2) minimal base. As organizations move away from AL2 support in favor of modern standards like AL2023 or Alpine, we are encountering challenges with image compliance and observability.
The current "distroless-style" AL2 image lacks a shell and basic utilities (like sh, cat, ls), which prevents our teams from performing live troubleshooting or verifying OS release metadata (/etc/os-release).
I would like to understand the maintainers' plans for the following:
AL2023 Migration: Is there a scheduled timeline to update the official controller image base from AL2 to AL2023?
Custom Base Image Provision: Is there a provision (or plans to implement one) that allows users to specify or override the base image (e.g., to Alpine) during the build/deployment process without requiring us to maintain a custom fork and private build pipeline?
We are currently maintaining a manual local build script using ko to override KO_DEFAULTBASEIMAGE with Alpine. While this works, it adds significant maintenance overhead, requiring us to manually track upstream tags and maintain private ECR repositories.
Additional context
Switching to an Alpine-based image has allowed us to:
Successfully verify OS identity via /etc/os-release.
Retain a minimal footprint (~5MB) while gaining essential debugging tools.
Ensure compatibility with our organization's requirement to phase out AL2.
Currently, the official Karpenter controller images (e.g., v1.12.0) are built using an Amazon Linux 2 (AL2) minimal base. As organizations move away from AL2 support in favor of modern standards like AL2023 or Alpine, we are encountering challenges with image compliance and observability.
The current "distroless-style" AL2 image lacks a shell and basic utilities (like sh, cat, ls), which prevents our teams from performing live troubleshooting or verifying OS release metadata (/etc/os-release).
I would like to understand the maintainers' plans for the following:
AL2023 Migration: Is there a scheduled timeline to update the official controller image base from AL2 to AL2023?
Custom Base Image Provision: Is there a provision (or plans to implement one) that allows users to specify or override the base image (e.g., to Alpine) during the build/deployment process without requiring us to maintain a custom fork and private build pipeline?
We are currently maintaining a manual local build script using ko to override KO_DEFAULTBASEIMAGE with Alpine. While this works, it adds significant maintenance overhead, requiring us to manually track upstream tags and maintain private ECR repositories.
Additional context
Switching to an Alpine-based image has allowed us to:
Successfully verify OS identity via /etc/os-release.
Retain a minimal footprint (~5MB) while gaining essential debugging tools.
Ensure compatibility with our organization's requirement to phase out AL2.