Aegis-GPU1.11 DOCA services on the DPU
Deploying service containers on BlueField Arm cores and debugging the kubelet.
Key points
DOCA services are containerized programs that run on the DPU. On the DPU, a standalone kubelet watches /etc/kubelet.d and starts a pod for each YAML file.
What NVIDIA says (2)
“cp doca_firefly.yaml /etc/kubelet.d”
“Kubelet automatically pulls the container image from NGC and spawns a pod that runs the container.”
The kubelet log records why a pod failed to start, such as a bad YAML file or missing huge pages. crictl pods lists the pods that did start.
What NVIDIA says (2)
“journalctl -u kubelet Examines the Kubelet logs. Useful when a pod/container fails to spawn.”
“crictl pods Displays currently active K8S pods, and their IDs”
Key terms
- Data processing unit: A BlueField network card with its own Arm cores that can run infrastructure services apart from the host.
- Kubelet: The Kubernetes agent on a node; on a DPU it starts DOCA service pods from YAML files in /etc/kubelet.d.
- DOCA service: A containerized NVIDIA service, pulled from NGC, that runs on the BlueField Arm cores.
Sample question
How do you deploy a DOCA service container on the BlueField Arm cores?
Show the answer
Answer: Edit its YAML and copy it to /etc/kubelet.d. Standalone kubelet pulls the image from NGC and starts the pod.
DOCA services are containerized programs that run on the DPU. On the DPU, a standalone kubelet watches /etc/kubelet.d and starts a pod for each YAML file.
What NVIDIA says (2)
“cp doca_firefly.yaml /etc/kubelet.d”
“Kubelet automatically pulls the container image from NGC and spawns a pod that runs the container.”
Practice 1.11 (2 questions) Full Installation and Deployment guide