Kubernetes execution platform — submits TAO container jobs as k8s Jobs with NVIDIA GPU scheduling; single-pod for one node, Indexed Jobs for multi-node distributed training. Use when running on EKS / GKE / AKS / on-prem clusters with the NVIDIA GPU Operator installed, or when integrating TAO into an existing k8s-native ML platform.
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name
tao-run-on-kubernetes
description
Kubernetes execution platform — submits TAO container jobs as k8s Jobs with NVIDIA GPU scheduling; single-pod for one node, Indexed Jobs for multi-node distributed training. Use when running on EKS / GKE / AKS / on-prem clusters with the NVIDIA GPU Operator installed, or when integrating TAO into an existing k8s-native ML platform.
license
Apache-2.0
compatibility
Requires GPU worker nodes with NVIDIA driver branch 580, CUDA Toolkit 13.0, and NVIDIA Container Toolkit 1.19.0; a `kubectl` client authenticated to the cluster; and the NVIDIA GPU Operator or device plugin. No nvidia-tao-sdk required — jobs are submitted with plain `kubectl`.
metadata
{"author":"NVIDIA Corporation","version":"0.1.0"}
allowed-tools
Read Bash
tags
["kubernetes","k8s","gpu","compute","container"]
Kubernetes
Standalone install? If this session was not initialized by the TAO skill bank plugin, run the tao-setup skill first (host preflight, credentials, cross-skill discovery).
Submits TAO container jobs as Kubernetes Jobs. Works on any cluster reachable via kubeconfig (EKS / GKE / AKS / on-prem) or in-cluster service account (when running inside a pod).
Single-pod by default; opt into multi-node distributed training via num_nodes > 1 (uses Indexed Job + headless Service, see Multi-node training below).
Preflight
Three checks: GPU host runtime ready, cluster reachable via kubectl, GPU
Operator/device plugin present.
# 0. GPU node host runtime.# Run this on each self-managed GPU worker node or in the node image build.# Set TAO_K8S_SKIP_NODE_RUNTIME_CHECK=1 only when using managed GPU nodes whose# driver/toolkit lifecycle is owned by the cloud provider or GPU Operator policy.if [ "${TAO_K8S_SKIP_NODE_RUNTIME_CHECK:-0}" != "1" ]; then
TAO_SKILL_BANK_ROOT="${TAO_SKILL_BANK_ROOT:-$PWD}"
SETUP_SCRIPT="${TAO_SKILL_BANK_ROOT}/skills/platform/tao-setup-nvidia-gpu-host/scripts/setup-nvidia-gpu-host.sh"
bash "$SETUP_SCRIPT" --backend kubernetes --check-only || {
echo"MISSING: TAO Kubernetes GPU node runtime is not ready."echo"For self-managed GPU nodes, run after user approval:"echo" bash \"$SETUP_SCRIPT\" --backend kubernetes --install --yes"echo"For managed clusters, verify the node image/GPU Operator policy installs driver 580 and toolkit 1.19.0, then set TAO_K8S_SKIP_NODE_RUNTIME_CHECK=1."exit 1
}
fi
-v kubectl >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
1
}
kubectl cluster-info >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
1
}
gpu=$(kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath= 2>/dev/null | grep -v | -1)
[ -z ] || [ = ];
# 1. Cluster reachable (kubeconfig OR in-cluster service account)
command
echo
"MISSING: kubectl not found on PATH. Install kubectl to submit Jobs."
exit
echo
"MISSING: no reachable cluster (kubeconfig at ~/.kube/config, \$KUBECONFIG, or in-pod service account)."
echo
"Configure kubectl for your cluster, or set \$KUBECONFIG:"
The GPU node runtime check is mandatory for self-managed nodes. For managed
clusters where the client is not running on a GPU worker, verify the provider
node image or GPU Operator policy and set TAO_K8S_SKIP_NODE_RUNTIME_CHECK=1
instead of running the installer on the client. The GPU-capacity warning here is
a soft check; the submit verb re-checks allocatable nvidia.com/gpu and
hard-fails before applying the manifest (there is no gang scheduling, so a
too-big Job would sit Pending forever).
Credentials & configuration
Kubeconfig (one of):
~/.kube/config — default discovery path
$KUBECONFIG — alternate path
In-cluster service account — used when running inside a pod (no kubeconfig needed)
TAO_K8S_NAMESPACE (optional): default namespace for Job submission. Defaults to default.
TAO_K8S_CONTEXT (optional): kubeconfig context name to switch clusters.
NGC_KEY (optional): for nvcr.io image pulls. If you've pre-created an image-pull secret in the target namespace, reference its name in the rendered manifest's imagePullSecrets.
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID / AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY / S3_BUCKET_NAME / S3_ENDPOINT_URL (optional): for S3 dataset I/O (storage tier C), injected into the pod via the per-job Secret (envFrom.secretRef), never inline. Legacy ACCESS_KEY/SECRET_KEY are mapped by tao-data-io.
Do not ask for Brev or SLURM credentials for Kubernetes runs. Ask for
S3 credentials only when the selected workflow uses s3:// inputs or outputs,
and ask for model-specific credentials such as HF_TOKEN only when the selected
model requires them. Before launch, verify the selected namespace can create
Jobs, dataset/result paths are visible from the pod, and PVC/mounted filesystem
paths are proven to be mounted into the job container; an agent-host local path
is not sufficient proof.
Execution — the four verbs
tao-run-on-kubernetes is a platform consumer: it runs a spec-bundle via
kubectl, mutating only the job-record. No nvidia-tao-sdk, no tao_sdk import —
jobs are submitted with plain kubectl apply.
$BANK = ${TAO_SKILL_BANK_PATH}.
submit
GPU-capacity gate — hard-fail first (no gang scheduling → a too-big Job
sits Pending forever):
Storage tier (via tao-data-io): A = mount a bound PVC/NFS holding the
data (author the mount paths, no fetch — the air-gap answer, and what the
packaged template does); C = ephemeral: an initContainer fetches from S3
into a shared emptyDir and a final step uploads results to S3 before TTL.
Tier C holds the GPU while it downloads. A pod reserves nvidia.com/gpu
for its whole lifetime, initContainers included, so a large tier-C fetch —
or a first-time multi-GB image pull — is billed and reaper-eligible idle GPU
time, exactly like pulling inside a SLURM allocation. Prefer tier A when the
data is already on a PVC; choose tier C knowingly, for small inputs.
Credentials → a per-job Secret (never inline in the manifest — it lands on
disk and is readable via kubectl get job -o yaml). Create it from an env-file
on stdin so no value hits a command line:
set -a; source /path/to/.env; set +a # omit if already exportedprintf'AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=%s\nAWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=%s\nHF_TOKEN=%s\n' \
"$AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID""$AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY""$HF_TOKEN" \
| kubectl create secret generic "tao-creds-$JOB_ID" --from-env-file=/dev/stdin
The template references it via envFrom.secretRef — only the Secret name is
in the manifest.
Open the record — mints the id, binds results_dir, before launch:
results_dir must be a mounted (surviving) volume path or an S3 prefix —
ttlSecondsAfterFinished deletes the Job and its logs after it ends, so
nothing is recoverable from the Job object later.
Rendertemplates/k8s/single-pod-job.yaml.tmpl (CRED_SECRET=tao-creds-$JOB_ID),
then gate: redact_secrets.py lint <manifest> (fails on any inline
credential) + kubectl apply --dry-run=server -f <manifest> (schema validity).
Apply + record RUNNING:
kubectl apply -f "$MANIFEST""$BANK/scripts/tao_job_record.py" mark "$JOB_ID" --state RUNNING --backend-ref "$NAMESPACE/$JOB_ID"
A submit that skipped the gate or the open has no id — so it cannot launch.
status
kubectl get job "$JOB_ID" -o jsonpath='{.status.conditions[0].type} {.status.active} {.status.succeeded} {.status.failed}'
kubectl signal
vocab
no pods scheduled
PENDING (kubectl get pods -l job-name=$JOB_ID → ImagePullBackOff / Insufficient nvidia.com/gpu in message)
active ≥ 1
RUNNING
condition Complete
COMPLETE
condition Failed
ERROR (classify from the pod's terminated reason — OOMKilled → ERR_INFRA)
Job/pod not found
UNKNOWN (may be TTL-deleted — the job-record is the source of truth)
kubectl delete job "$JOB_ID" --cascade=foreground # also deletes the pods
kubectl delete secret "tao-creds-$JOB_ID" --ignore-not-found # tear down the per-job Secret"$BANK/scripts/tao_job_record.py" mark "$JOB_ID" --state CANCELED --source agent
Multi-node (nodes > 1)
Same four verbs, plus:
Version gate: require k8s ≥ 1.28 (kubectl version -o json) — the pod
hostname <job>-<index> (PodIndexLabel) that MASTER_ADDR=<job>-0.<svc>
resolves to needs it; on older clusters rank-0 hangs at rendezvous.
Capacity gate ×nodes: hard-fail unless allocatable GPUs ≥ gpus_per_node × nodes (no gang scheduling → a partial start leaves rank-0 waiting forever).
Render templates/k8s/indexed-job.yaml.tmpl — the headless Service +
Indexed Job + rendezvous env (WORLD_SIZE = node count, NODE_RANK from
JOB_COMPLETION_INDEX, MASTER_ADDR=<job>-0.<svc>, /dev/shm 16Gi so NCCL
doesn't silently hang). kubectl apply -f creates the Service and Job together;
cancel deletes the Job (Foreground) and the Service.
NCCL probe first (as SLURM) — a 2-node all-reduce with a timeout; on hang,
set the cluster NCCL env and re-probe; cache per cluster.
Local cluster (development, CI, and evals)
A throwaway minikube/kind cluster exercises admission, the four verbs,
job-record wiring, and log plumbing without cluster quota — and is what an
agent-driven eval should provision for itself. kubectl and minikube are
single static binaries needing no root, so a non-root CI container can install
them itself.
Two prerequisites keep a rendered Job Pending, and the first masks the second:
the PVC the template mounts must exist (persistentvolumeclaim "<name>" not found fires before any GPU complaint), then a Job requesting nvidia.com/gpu
on a GPU-less cluster reports Insufficient nvidia.com/gpu and waits forever.
Render NUM_GPUS=0 for a lifecycle-only run and say GPU scheduling was not
verified; on a Linux GPU host, minikube start --driver=docker --gpus all
passes real GPUs through, so one GPU box suffices for a GPU-real smoke.
Install commands, driver choice, the container/host-networking caveat, and the
fake-device-plugin middle option: references/local-cluster.md.
Container shell
The single-pod template invokes the container command via /bin/sh -c (POSIX
sh, present in busybox/distroless as well as TAO images). If your image relies
on bash-only syntax, override the interpreter in the rendered manifest.
GPU Operator dependency
The submit verb refuses to launch GPU jobs on a cluster with no nvidia.com/gpu allocatable. For self-managed clusters, first run the tao-setup-nvidia-gpu-host install action on every GPU worker node or bake the same package set into the node image:
Set num_nodes > 1 (see the Multi-node (nodes > 1) verb
steps above) to run distributed training across N pods. Rendering
templates/k8s/indexed-job.yaml.tmpl provisions:
A headless Service named after the Job (selector: job-name=<job-name>, clusterIP: None, publishNotReadyAddresses: true so pods can rendezvous before they're all Ready).
An Indexed Job with parallelism = completions = num_nodes, completionMode: Indexed. Each pod gets JOB_COMPLETION_INDEX injected by k8s automatically (= the node rank).
A command wrapper that exports the rendezvous env vars before invoking the user command. Two naming conventions are exported simultaneously:
Env var
Value
Read by
WORLD_SIZE
num_nodes
TAO PyTorch container's nvidia_tao_pytorch/core/entrypoint.py (uses this to mean node count, even though PyTorch's own convention is total processes)
NUM_GPU_PER_NODE
gpu_count
TAO PyTorch container's entrypoint
NNODES
num_nodes
torchrun and PyTorch-standard rendezvous
NPROC_PER_NODE
gpu_count
torchrun
NODE_RANK
$JOB_COMPLETION_INDEX
both
MASTER_ADDR
<job-name>-0.<job-name> (pod-0's DNS)
both
MASTER_PORT
29500
both (TAO's default)
Both naming conventions are set so TAO entrypoints (dino train, etc.) and raw torchrun commands work without modification.
For a TAO entrypoint, the container reads spec.train.num_nodes and the wired
env vars — e.g. dino train -e /tmp/spec.yaml with gpu_count=8, num_nodes=4
(4 × 8 = 32 GPUs total).
For raw torchrun-based commands (non-TAO containers), the wrapper invokes:
The capacity check sums across nodes: gpu_count × num_nodes ≤ cluster's allocatable nvidia.com/gpu.
Cluster requirements for multi-node
k8s 1.28+ is required for stable pod hostnames in Indexed Jobs (the PodIndexLabel feature). On older clusters the MASTER_ADDR=<job>-0.<svc> DNS lookup fails. Verify with kubectl version.
Pod-to-pod networking must be open on port 29500 (PyTorch default; configurable via MASTER_PORT env var). Most CNIs (Calico, Cilium, AWS VPC CNI) allow this by default; restrictive NetworkPolicies must be relaxed.
NCCL in the container talks GPU-to-GPU; if the cluster has multi-NIC nodes or RDMA, set NCCL_SOCKET_IFNAME / NCCL_IB_HCA in the container env of the rendered manifest.
For more sophisticated topologies (gang scheduling, PyTorch elastic / fault-tolerant training, MPI / Horovod, RDMA setup), reach for an operator instead of plain Indexed Job:
This skill's Indexed Job path is intentionally simple and dependency-free; if you need elastic restart or gang scheduling, layer one of these on top and submit jobs through the operator's CRD instead.
Common error patterns
No nvidia.com/gpu resources allocatable on the cluster — the GPU Operator (or NVIDIA Device Plugin) isn't installed. Install per the link above; verify with kubectl get nodes -o jsonpath='{.items[*].status.allocatable}'.
ImagePullBackOff / ErrImagePull — the cluster can't pull the image. For nvcr.io: pre-create an image-pull secret in the namespace and reference it as the pod's imagePullSecrets in the rendered manifest:
Feed the key over stdin — --docker-password=$NGC_KEY would put the secret in
argv, where it is visible in the host's process table and shell history:
set -a; source /path/to/.env; set +a # omit if already exported
kubectl create secret generic ngc-pull-secret -n tao-jobs \
--type=kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson \
--from-file=.dockerconfigjson=/dev/stdin <<EOF
{"auths": {"nvcr.io": {"username": "\$oauthtoken", "password": "${NGC_KEY}"}}}
EOF# Verify without reading the secret back:
kubectl get secret ngc-pull-secret -n tao-jobs >/dev/null && echo SECRET_OK
Pod stays Pending forever — kubectl describe pod -l job-name=$JOB_ID shows the scheduling reason in the Events. Common causes: insufficient GPU capacity (Insufficient nvidia.com/gpu), no node matches the pod's nodeSelector, missing image-pull secret, or PVC mount failure.
OOMKilled (exit 137) — container exceeded memory. Reduce batch size, lower max_length, or add a memory request/limit and target a larger node.
CredentialError: Could not authenticate to a Kubernetes cluster — neither kubeconfig nor in-cluster auth worked. Run kubectl get nodes to verify your config, or set $KUBECONFIG to the right path.
What this skill does NOT support (yet)
Elastic / fault-tolerant training. Indexed Job has backoff_limit=0 — failures fail the whole training run. For elastic restart (e.g., resume from checkpoint after a node death), use Kubeflow's PyTorchJob operator instead.
Gang scheduling. Indexed Job pods are scheduled independently — no all-or-nothing. Multi-node training will partially start if only some pods can be scheduled (rank-0 will hang waiting for peers). For all-or-nothing scheduling on shared clusters, use Volcano or Kueue.
MPI / Horovod. Use the MPI Operator. The Indexed Job path here is PyTorch-distributed-shaped (env-var rendezvous on MASTER_ADDR:MASTER_PORT).
Auto-creating image-pull secrets from $NGC_KEY. You pre-create the secret in the target namespace and pass the name. K8s namespace conventions vary widely, so we keep secret creation explicit.
