> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://openworklabs.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Deploy on AWS

> Run OpenWork on Amazon EKS with Amazon RDS for MySQL.

The recommended AWS path is Helm on Amazon EKS with Amazon RDS for MySQL. For the smallest first deployment, use EKS Auto Mode and Kubernetes `LoadBalancer` Services so AWS provisions Network Load Balancers for Den web and Den API. Move to an ALB or an existing ingress platform when you need shared layer-7 routing, WAF policy, or more advanced certificate handling.

## What AWS manages

* EKS control plane, compute, pod networking, and load-balancer integration
* VPCs, subnets, routing, security groups, and IAM
* RDS for MySQL, encryption, backups, and failover
* Route 53 DNS and ACM certificates when you use those services

The OpenWork chart manages Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, Secret references, probes, and the database migration Job.

## AWS checklist

1. Create an EKS Auto Mode cluster with `eksctl` `0.195.0` or newer.
2. Create an RDS MySQL 8-compatible database in private subnets.
3. Allow database port `3306` only from the EKS workload or node security boundary.
4. Store `DATABASE_URL`, `BETTER_AUTH_SECRET`, and `DEN_DB_ENCRYPTION_KEY` in a Kubernetes Secret.
5. Start from the chart's `values.aws-load-balancer.yaml` example.
6. Install the chart, verify migrations and readiness, then point DNS at the generated load balancers.
7. Enable trusted HTTPS before creating the first administrator.

For exact CLI commands, values, DNS/TLS choices, migration troubleshooting, verification, and cleanup, follow the [AWS EKS operator runbook](https://github.com/different-ai/openwork/blob/dev/docs/aws-eks-helm.md).

Next: [Create the first administrator](/docs/self-host/deploy-to-your-cloud/first-administrator).