dynamo/deploy/cloud/helm/platform

dynamo-platform

A Helm chart for NVIDIA Dynamo Platform.

🚀 Overview

The Dynamo Platform Helm chart deploys the complete Dynamo Cloud infrastructure on Kubernetes, including:

• Dynamo Operator: Kubernetes operator for managing Dynamo deployments
• NATS: High-performance messaging system for component communication
• etcd: Distributed key-value store for operator state management
• Grove: Multi-node inference orchestration (optional)
• Kai Scheduler: Advanced workload scheduling (optional)

📋 Prerequisites

• Kubernetes cluster (v1.20+)
• Helm 3.8+
• Sufficient cluster resources for your deployment scale
• Container registry access (if using private images)

⚠️ Important: Cluster-Wide vs Namespace-Scoped Deployment

Single Cluster-Wide Operator (Recommended)

By default, the Dynamo operator runs with cluster-wide permissions and should only be deployed ONCE per cluster.

• ✅ Recommended: Deploy one cluster-wide operator per cluster
• ❌ Not Recommended: Multiple cluster-wide operators in the same cluster

Multiple Namespace-Scoped Operators (Advanced)

If you need multiple operator instances (e.g., for multi-tenancy), use namespace-scoped deployment:

# values.yaml
dynamo-operator:
  namespaceRestriction:
    enabled: true
    targetNamespace: "my-tenant-namespace"  # Optional, defaults to release namespace

Validation and Safety

The chart includes built-in validation to prevent all operator conflicts:

• Automatic Detection: Scans for existing operators (both cluster-wide and namespace-restricted) during installation
• Prevents Multiple Cluster-Wide: Installation will fail if another cluster-wide operator exists
• Prevents Mixed Deployments (Type 1): Installation will fail if trying to install namespace-restricted operator when cluster-wide exists
• Prevents Mixed Deployments (Type 2): Installation will fail if trying to install cluster-wide operator when namespace-restricted operators exist
• Safe Defaults: Leader election uses shared ID for proper coordination

🚫 Blocked Conflict Scenarios

Existing Operator	New Operator	Status	Reason
None	Cluster-wide	✅ Allowed	No conflicts
None	Namespace-restricted	✅ Allowed	No conflicts
Cluster-wide	Cluster-wide	❌ Blocked	Multiple cluster managers
Cluster-wide	Namespace-restricted	❌ Blocked	Cluster-wide already manages target namespace
Namespace-restricted	Cluster-wide	❌ Blocked	Would conflict with existing namespace operators
Namespace-restricted A	Namespace-restricted B (diff ns)	✅ Allowed	Different scopes

🔧 Configuration

Requirements

Repository	Name	Version
file://components/operator	dynamo-operator	0.5.0
https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami	etcd	12.0.18
https://nats-io.github.io/k8s/helm/charts/	nats	1.3.2
oci://ghcr.io/nvidia/grove	grove(grove-charts)	v0.1.0-alpha.2
oci://ghcr.io/nvidia/kai-scheduler	kai-scheduler	v0.9.4

Values

Key	Type	Default	Description
dynamo-operator.enabled	bool	true	Whether to enable the Dynamo Kubernetes operator deployment
dynamo-operator.natsAddr	string	""	NATS server address for operator communication (leave empty to use the bundled NATS chart). Format: "nats://hostname:port"
dynamo-operator.etcdAddr	string	""	etcd server address for operator state storage (leave empty to use the bundled etcd chart). Format: "http://hostname:port" or "https://hostname:port"
dynamo-operator.modelExpressURL	string	""	URL for the Model Express server if not deployed by this helm chart. This is ignored if Model Express server is installed by this helm chart (global.model-express.enabled is true).
dynamo-operator.namespaceRestriction	object	{"enabled":false,"targetNamespace":null}	Namespace access controls for the operator
dynamo-operator.namespaceRestriction.enabled	bool	false	Whether to restrict operator to specific namespaces. By default, the operator will run with cluster-wide permissions. Only 1 instance of the operator should be deployed in the cluster. If you want to deploy multiple operator instances, you can set this to true and specify the target namespace (by default, the target namespace is the helm release namespace).
dynamo-operator.namespaceRestriction.targetNamespace	string	nil	Target namespace for operator deployment (leave empty for current namespace)
dynamo-operator.controllerManager.tolerations	list	[]	Node tolerations for controller manager pods
dynamo-operator.controllerManager.affinity	list	[]	Affinity for controller manager pods
dynamo-operator.controllerManager.leaderElection.id	string	""	Leader election ID for cluster-wide coordination. WARNING: All cluster-wide operators must use the SAME ID to prevent split-brain. Different IDs would allow multiple leaders simultaneously.
dynamo-operator.controllerManager.leaderElection.namespace	string	""	Namespace for leader election leases (only used in cluster-wide mode). If empty, defaults to kube-system for cluster-wide coordination. All cluster-wide operators should use the SAME namespace for proper leader election.
dynamo-operator.controllerManager.manager.image.repository	string	"nvcr.io/nvidia/ai-dynamo/kubernetes-operator"	Official NVIDIA Dynamo operator image repository
dynamo-operator.controllerManager.manager.image.tag	string	""	Image tag (leave empty to use chart default)
dynamo-operator.controllerManager.manager.image.pullPolicy	string	"IfNotPresent"	Image pull policy - when to pull the image
dynamo-operator.controllerManager.manager.args[0]	string	"--health-probe-bind-address=:8081"	Health probe endpoint for Kubernetes health checks
dynamo-operator.controllerManager.manager.args[1]	string	"--metrics-bind-address=127.0.0.1:8080"	Metrics endpoint for Prometheus scraping (localhost only for security)
dynamo-operator.imagePullSecrets	list	[]	Secrets for pulling private container images
dynamo-operator.dynamo.groveTerminationDelay	string	"4h"	How long to wait before forcefully terminating Grove instances
dynamo-operator.dynamo.internalImages.debugger	string	"python:3.12-slim"	Debugger image for troubleshooting deployments
dynamo-operator.dynamo.enableRestrictedSecurityContext	bool	false	Whether to enable restricted security contexts for enhanced security
dynamo-operator.dynamo.dockerRegistry.useKubernetesSecret	bool	false	Whether to use Kubernetes secrets for registry authentication
dynamo-operator.dynamo.dockerRegistry.server	string	nil	Docker registry server URL
dynamo-operator.dynamo.dockerRegistry.username	string	nil	Registry username
dynamo-operator.dynamo.dockerRegistry.password	string	nil	Registry password (consider using existingSecretName instead)
dynamo-operator.dynamo.dockerRegistry.existingSecretName	string	nil	Name of existing Kubernetes secret containing registry credentials
dynamo-operator.dynamo.dockerRegistry.secure	bool	true	Whether the registry uses HTTPS
dynamo-operator.dynamo.ingress.enabled	bool	false	Whether to create ingress resources
dynamo-operator.dynamo.ingress.className	string	nil	Ingress class name (e.g., "nginx", "traefik")
dynamo-operator.dynamo.ingress.tlsSecretName	string	"my-tls-secret"	Secret name containing TLS certificates
dynamo-operator.dynamo.istio.enabled	bool	false	Whether to enable Istio integration
dynamo-operator.dynamo.istio.gateway	string	nil	Istio gateway name for routing
dynamo-operator.dynamo.ingressHostSuffix	string	""	Host suffix for generated ingress hostnames
dynamo-operator.dynamo.virtualServiceSupportsHTTPS	bool	false	Whether VirtualServices should support HTTPS routing
dynamo-operator.dynamo.metrics.prometheusEndpoint	string	""	Endpoint that services can use to retrieve metrics. If set, dynamo operator will automatically inject the PROMETHEUS_ENDPOINT environment variable into services it manages. Users can override the value of the PROMETHEUS_ENDPOINT environment variable by modifying the corresponding deployment's environment variables
dynamo-operator.dynamo.mpiRun.secretName	string	"mpi-run-ssh-secret"	Name of the secret containing the SSH key for MPI Run
dynamo-operator.dynamo.mpiRun.sshKeygen.enabled	bool	true	Whether to enable SSH key generation for MPI Run
grove.enabled	bool	false	Whether to enable Grove for multi-node inference coordination, if enabled, the Grove operator will be deployed cluster-wide
kai-scheduler.enabled	bool	false	Whether to enable Kai Scheduler for intelligent resource allocation, if enabled, the Kai Scheduler operator will be deployed cluster-wide
etcd.enabled	bool	true	Whether to enable etcd deployment, disable if you want to use an external etcd instance. For complete configuration options, see: https://github.com/bitnami/charts/tree/main/bitnami/etcd , all etcd settings should be prefixed with "etcd."
etcd.image.repository	string	"bitnamilegacy/etcd"	following bitnami announcement for brownout - https://github.com/bitnami/charts/tree/main/bitnami/etcd#%EF%B8%8F-important-notice-upcoming-changes-to-the-bitnami-catalog, we need to use the legacy repository until we migrate to the new "secure" repository
nats.enabled	bool	true	Whether to enable NATS deployment, disable if you want to use an external NATS instance. For complete configuration options, see: https://github.com/nats-io/k8s/tree/main/helm/charts/nats , all nats settings should be prefixed with "nats."

NATS Configuration

For detailed NATS configuration options beyond nats.enabled, please refer to the official NATS Helm chart documentation: NATS Helm Chart Documentation

etcd Configuration

For detailed etcd configuration options beyond etcd.enabled, please refer to the official Bitnami etcd Helm chart documentation: etcd Helm Chart Documentation

📚 Additional Resources

• Dynamo Cloud Deployment Installation Guide
• NATS Documentation
• etcd Documentation
• Kubernetes Operator Pattern

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