Kubernetes

Kubernetes is the industry-standard container orchestration software. It is the de facto standard for inference and growing in popularity for training.

Access

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    Kubeconfig simple download or properly configured login nodeKubeconfig docs
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    RBAC options with remote SSO provider integrationK8s RBAC docs
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    Helm access available without custom external authenticationHelm docs

Configuration

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    GPU Operator installed and configuredGPU Operator docs
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    Network Operator installed and configuredNetwork Operator docs
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    MPI Operator deployed or easy to installMPI Operator
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    CSI provider with ReadWriteMany supportK8s PV Access Modes
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    Default StorageClass configured and functional, PVCs provision without hanging
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    Host path storage option available for high performance and caching
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    Ingress/egress to cluster properly configured
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    MetalLB or external load balancer available, public IPs assignableMetalLB docs

Profiling Access

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    ncu (Nsight Compute) usable in GPU pods with hardware counters accessible. Needs NVreg_RestrictProfilingToAdminUsers=0 on the host and SYS_ADMIN on the pod, otherwise ERR_NVGPUCTRPERM. A full GPU rental should include full profiling access, bare metal or virtualized.Fixing ERR_NVGPUCTRPERM
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    Non-root Nsight Compute access and fixing ERR_NVGPUCTRPERM.Nsight Compute profiling setup
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    perf top / perf stat usable in pods for CPU-side profiling. Host needs perf_event_paranoid <= 1 and kptr_restrict = 0.perf security docs

Other

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    GPU Operator up to date for drivers, container toolkit, including latest security patchesGPU Operator docs
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    Network Operator up to date for InfiniBand or Spectrum-X RoCENetwork Operator docs
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    Documentation for Broadcom or Pollara RoCE NICs passthrough
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    Experience with MPI Operator and PyTorchJob from KubeflowMPI Operator
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    Experience with JobSet, Volcano, Kueue or other OSS training frameworksKueue docs
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    Experience with llm-d, SGLang OME, or other OSS inference frameworksllm-d
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    ACS and other BIOS settings monitored on underlying hosts
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    kube-prometheus-stack, dcgmi for monitoring dmesg for ECCs, XIDs, and similar errorskube-prometheus-stack

Performance Testing

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    Compute performs as expected (GEMMs, MAMF, bandwidth, etc.)MAMF finder
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    Storage performs as expected (fio, etc.)fio
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    Network performs as expected (nccl-tests or rccl-tests)nccl-tests

General Expectations

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    Console, dashboard, CLI and/or API available to manage resources
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    24x7 support availability
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    Process for security fixes and upgrades exists, proactive notifications are clear
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    Integration with comprehensive monitoring and alerting systems
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    Integration with active and passive health check systems

All expectations