Installing device plugins to cluster

Install device plugins via a DaemonSet

Each plugin can be installed via a DaemonSet. The install changes slightly based on the desired plugin. See install instructions per plugin.

Installing plugins via DaemonSets deployes them to the default (or currently active) namespace. Use kubectl’s --namespace argument to change the deployment namespace.

Install device plugins via device plugin operator

A more advanced install method is via device plugin operator. Operator configures plugin deployments based on the supplied device plugin CRDs (Custom Resource Definitions). See installation instructions in the operator README.

Operator installs device plugins to the same namespace where the operator itself is deployed. The default operator namespace is inteldeviceplugins-system.

Install with HELM charts

Device plugins can also be installed to a cluster using the device plugin operator Helm chart (depending on cert-manager and NFD). Individual plugin projects are under https://github.com/intel/helm-charts/tree/main/charts/.

These steps will install device plugin operator and plugins under inteldeviceplugins-system namespace. It’s possible to change the target namespace by changing the --namespace value in the helm install command.

Installing HELM repositories

helm repo add jetstack https://charts.jetstack.io # for cert-manager
helm repo add nfd https://kubernetes-sigs.github.io/node-feature-discovery/charts # for NFD
helm repo add intel https://intel.github.io/helm-charts/ # for device-plugin-operator and plugins
helm repo update

Installing cert-manager

helm install --wait \
  cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager \
  --namespace cert-manager \
  --create-namespace \
  --version v1.15.2 \
  --set installCRDs=true

NOTE: cert-manager install takes a while to complete.

Installing NFD

helm install nfd nfd/node-feature-discovery \
  --namespace node-feature-discovery --create-namespace --version 0.16.4

Installing operator

helm install dp-operator intel/intel-device-plugins-operator --namespace inteldeviceplugins-system --create-namespace

Installing specific plugins

Replace PLUGIN with the desired plugin name. At least the following plugins are supported: gpu, sgx, qat, dlb, dsa & iaa.

helm install <PLUGIN> intel/intel-device-plugins-<PLUGIN> --namespace inteldeviceplugins-system --create-namespace \
  --set nodeFeatureRule=true

Listing available versions

Use helm’s search functionality to list available versions.

helm search repo intel/intel-device-plugins-operator --versions
helm search repo intel/intel-device-plugins-<plugin> --versions

For example, operator chart versions with development versions included.

$ helm search repo intel/intel-device-plugins-operator --versions --devel
NAME                               	CHART VERSION	APP VERSION	DESCRIPTION
intel/intel-device-plugins-operator	0.26.0       	0.26.0     	A Helm chart for Intel Device Plugins Operator ...
intel/intel-device-plugins-operator	0.25.1       	0.25.1     	A Helm chart for Intel Device Plugins Operator ...
intel/intel-device-plugins-operator	0.25.1-helm.0	0.25.0     	A Helm chart for Intel Device Plugins Operator ...
intel/intel-device-plugins-operator	0.25.0       	0.25.0     	A Helm chart for Intel Device Plugins Operator ...
intel/intel-device-plugins-operator	0.24.1       	0.24.1     	A Helm chart for Intel Device Plugins Operator ...
intel/intel-device-plugins-operator	0.24.1-helm.0	0.24.0     	A Helm chart for Intel Device Plugins Operator ...
intel/intel-device-plugins-operator	0.24.0       	0.24.0     	A Helm chart for Intel Device Plugins Operator ...

Customizing plugins

To customize plugin features, see the available chart values:

helm show values intel/intel-device-plugins-<PLUGIN>

For example, qat plugin has these values:

$ helm show values intel/intel-device-plugins-qat
name: qatdeviceplugin-sample

image:
  hub: intel
  tag: ""

initImage:
  hub: intel
  tag: ""

dpdkDriver: vfio-pci
kernelVfDrivers:
  - 4xxxvf
  - 420xxvf
maxNumDevices: 128
logLevel: 4

nodeSelector:
  intel.feature.node.kubernetes.io/qat: 'true'

nodeFeatureRule: true

Uninstall

Uninstall each installed component with helm uninstall:

# repeat first step as many times as there are plugins installed
helm uninstall -n inteldeviceplugins-system <PLUGIN>
helm uninstall -n inteldeviceplugins-system dp-operator
helm uninstall -n node-feature-discovery nfd
helm uninstall -n cert-manager cert-manager