install-dd-operator

Install Datadog Operator on EKS

Deploy the Datadog Agent on an EKS cluster using the Datadog Operator via Helm.

Prerequisites

• EKS cluster provisioned and kubectl configured (see setup-eks-cluster skill)
• Helm CLI installed
• Datadog API key

Instructions

1. Add the Datadog Helm repo

helm repo add datadog https://helm.datadoghq.com
helm repo update

2. Create the API key secret

kubectl create secret generic datadog-secret --from-literal api-key=<YOUR_DATADOG_API_KEY>

3. Deploy the Datadog Operator with Helm values

Use the bundled Helm values file:

helm install datadog-operator datadog/datadog-operator -f references/datadog-values-helm.yaml

See references/datadog-values-helm.yaml.example for a template with all configurable options.

4. Apply the Datadog Agent operator configuration

kubectl apply -f references/datadog-agent-operator.yaml

Validation

# Check operator and agent pods
kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/name=datadog

# Check agent status
kubectl exec $(kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/component=agent -o name | head -1) \
  -c agent -- agent status 2>/dev/null | head -50

In the Datadog UI: Infrastructure > Kubernetes — verify the EKS cluster appears.

Troubleshooting

Agent pods in CrashLoopBackOff

Cause: Invalid API key or missing secret. Fix: Verify the secret: kubectl get secret datadog-secret -o jsonpath='{.data.api-key}' | base64 -d

No data in Datadog UI

Cause: Agent cannot reach Datadog endpoints (egress blocked). Fix: Ensure security groups allow outbound HTTPS (443) to *.datadoghq.com.