Platform Support

NVIDIA GPU Operator Versioning

To understand the NVIDIA GPU Operator life cycle policy, it is important to know how the NVIDIA GPU Operator is versioned.

As of September 2022, the NVIDIA GPU Operator is versioned following the calendar schema. NVIDIA GPU Operator v22.9.0 will be the first release following calendar versioning, and NVIDIA GPU Operator 1.11 is therefore the last release following the old versioning schema.

Now, let’s have a look at how to interpret a NVIDIA GPU Operator release that follows calendar versioning. In this example, we will use v22.9.0 as the example.

The first two segments in the version are in the format of YY.MM which represent the major version and also when the NVIDIA GPU Operator was initially released. In this example, the NVIDIA GPU Operator was released in September 2022. Zero padding is omitted for month to be still compatible with semantic versioning.

The third segment as in ‘.0’ represents a dot release. Dot releases typically include fixes for bugs or CVEs but could also include minor features like support for a new NVIDIA GPU driver.

NVIDIA GPU Operator Life Cycle

The NVIDIA GPU Operator life cycle policy provides a predictable support policy and timeline of when new NVIDIA GPU Operator versions are released.

Starting with the NVIDIA GPU Operator v23.3.0, a new major GPU Operator version is released every three months. Therefore, the next major release of the NVIDIA GPU Operator is scheduled for June 2023 and will be named v23.6.0.

Every major release of the NVIDIA GPU Operator, starting with v23.3.0, is maintained for six months. Bug fixes and CVEs are released throughout the six months while minor feature updates are only released within the first three months.

This life cycle allows NVIDIA GPU Operator users to use a given NVIDIA GPU Operator version for up to six months. It also provides users a three month period where they can plan the transition to the next major NVIDIA GPU Operator version.

The product life cycle and versioning are subject to change in the future.

Note

  • Upgrades are only supported within a major release or to the next major release.

Support Status for Releases

GPU Operator Version

Status

Details

23.6.x

Generally Available

Enters maintenance when v23.9.0 is released.

23.3.x

Maintenance

Enters EOL when v23.9.0 is released.

22.9.x

EOL

1.11.x and lower

EOL

GPU Operator Component Matrix

The following table shows the operands and default operand versions that correspond to a GPU Operator version.

When post-release testing confirms support for newer versions of operands, these updates are identified as recommended updates to a GPU Operator version. Refer to Upgrading the GPU Operator for more information.

Release
NVIDIA
GPU
Driver
NVIDIA Driver
Manager for K8s
NVIDIA
Container
Toolkit
NVIDIA Kubernetes
Device Plugin

DCGM Exporter
Node Feature
Discovery
NVIDIA GPU Feature
Discovery for Kubernetes
NVIDIA MIG Manager
for Kubernetes

DCGM
Validator for
NVIDIA GPU Operator
NVIDIA KubeVirt
GPU Device Plugin
NVIDIA vGPU
Device Manager

NVIDIA GDS Driver
NVIDIA Kata Manager
for Kubernetes
NVIDIA Confidential
Computing Manager
for Kubernetes

v23.6.1
535.104.12 (recommended),
535.104.05 (default),
525.125.06,
470.199.02,

v0.6.2

1.13.4

0.14.1

3.1.8-3.1.5

v0.13.1

0.8.1

0.5.3
3.1.8-1 (default),

v23.6.1

v1.2.2

v0.2.3

2.16.1

v0.1.0

v0.1.0

v23.6.0
535.86.10 (default),
525.125.06,
470.199.02,

v0.6.2

1.13.4

0.14.1

3.1.8-3.1.5

v0.13.1

0.8.1

0.5.3
3.1.8-1 (default),

v23.6.0

v1.2.2

v0.2.3

2.16.1

v0.1.0

v0.1.0

v23.3.2
535.54.03 (recommended),
525.125.06,
525.105.17 (default),
515.86.01,
510.108.03,
470.199.02,
470.161.03,
450.248.02,
450.216.04

v0.6.1

1.13.0

0.14.0

3.1.7-3.1.4

v0.12.1

0.8.0

0.5.2
3.1.7-1 (default),

v23.3.2

v1.2.1

v0.2.1

2.15.1

N/A

N/A

v23.3.1
525.105.17 (default),
515.86.01,
510.108.03,
470.161.03,
450.216.04

v0.6.1

1.13.0

0.14.0

3.1.7-3.1.4

v0.12.1

0.8.0

0.5.2
3.1.7-1 (default),

v23.3.1

v1.2.1

v0.2.1

2.15.1

N/A

N/A

v23.3.0
525.105.17 (default),
515.86.01,
510.108.03,
470.161.03,
450.216.04

v0.6.1

1.13.0

0.14.0

3.1.7-3.1.4

v0.12.1

0.8.0

0.5.2
3.1.7-1 (default),

v23.3.0

v1.2.1

v0.2.1

2.15.1

N/A

N/A

v22.9.2
535.54.03 (recommended),
525.125.06,
525.85.12,
525.60.13 (default),
515.86.01,
510.108.03,
470.199.02,
470.161.03,
450.248.02,
450.216.04

v0.6.0

1.11.0

0.13.0

3.1.3-3.1.2

v0.10.1

0.7.0

0.5.0
3.1.6 (recommended),
3.1.3-1 (default)

v22.9.1

v1.2.1

v0.2.0

2.14.13

N/A

N/A

v22.9.1
525.60.13 (default),
515.86.01,
510.108.03,
470.161.03,
450.216.04

v0.5.1

1.11.0

0.13.0

3.1.3-3.1.2

v0.10.1

0.7.0

0.5.0

3.1.3-1

v22.9.1

v1.2.1

v0.2.0

2.14.13

N/A

N/A

Note

Supported NVIDIA GPUs and Systems

The following NVIDIA data center GPUs are supported on x86 based platforms:

Product

Architecture

NVIDIA H800

NVIDIA Hopper

NVIDIA HGX H100

NVIDIA Hopper and NVSwitch
NVIDIA H100,
NVIDIA H100 NVL

NVIDIA Hopper
NVIDIA L40,
NVIDIA L40S

NVIDIA Ada

NVIDIA L4

NVIDIA Ada

NVIDIA DGX A100

A100 and NVSwitch

NVIDIA HGX A100

A100 and NVSwitch

NVIDIA A800

NVIDIA Ampere

NVIDIA A100

NVIDIA Ampere

NVIDIA A100X

NVIDIA Ampere

NVIDIA A40

NVIDIA Ampere

NVIDIA A30

NVIDIA Ampere

NVIDIA A30X

NVIDIA Ampere

NVIDIA A16

NVIDIA Ampere

NVIDIA A10

NVIDIA Ampere

NVIDIA A2

NVIDIA Ampere

Note

  • Hopper (H100) GPU is only supported on x86 servers.

  • The GPU Operator supports DGX A100 with DGX OS 5.1+ and Red Hat OpenShift using Red Hat Core OS. For installation instructions, see here for DGX OS 5.1+ and here for Red Hat OpenShift.

Product

Architecture

NVIDIA T4

Turing

NVIDIA V100

Volta

NVIDIA P100

Pascal

NVIDIA P40

Pascal

NVIDIA P4

Pascal

Product

Architecture

NVIDIA RTX A6000

NVIDIA Ampere /Ada

NVIDIA RTX A5000

NVIDIA Ampere

NVIDIA RTX A4000

NVIDIA Ampere

NVIDIA RTX A8000

Turing

NVIDIA RTX A6000

Turing

NVIDIA RTX A5000

Turing

NVIDIA RTX A4000

Turing

NVIDIA T1000

Turing

NVIDIA T600

Turing

NVIDIA T400

Turing

Supported ARM Based Platforms

The following NVIDIA data center GPUs are supported:

Product

Architecture

NVIDIA A100X

Ampere

NVIDIA A30X

Ampere

AWS EC2 G5g instances

Turing

Note

The GPU Operator only supports platforms using discrete GPUs. NVIDIA Jetson, or other embedded products with integrated GPUs, are not supported.

Note

The R520 Data Center Driver is not supported for ARM.

Supported Deployment Options, Hypervisors, and NVIDIA vGPU Based Products

The GPU Operator has been validated in the following scenarios:

Deployment Options

Bare Metal

Virtual machines with GPU Passthrough

Virtual machines with NVIDIA vGPU based products

Hypervisors (On-premises)

Hypervisors

VMware vSphere 7 and 8

Red Hat Enterprise Linux KVM

Red Hat Virtualization (RHV)

NVIDIA vGPU based products

NVIDIA vGPU based products

NVIDIA vGPU (NVIDIA AI Enterprise)

NVIDIA vCompute Server

NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation

Note

GPU Operator is supported with NVIDIA vGPU 12.0+.

Supported Operating Systems and Kubernetes Platforms

The GPU Operator has been validated in the following scenarios:

Note

The Kubernetes community supports only the last three minor releases as of v1.17. Older releases may be supported through enterprise distributions of Kubernetes such as Red Hat OpenShift.

Operating
System

Kubernetes
Red Hat
OpenShift
VMWare vSphere
with Tanzu
Rancher Kubernetes
Engine 2
HPE Ezmeral
Runtime
Enterprise
Canonical
MicroK8s

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

1.21—1.27

7.0 U3c, 8.0 U1

1.21—1.27

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

1.21—1.27

1.26

CentOS 7

1.21—1.27

Red Hat Core OS
4.9, 4.10, 4.11
4.12, 4.13
Red Hat
Enterprise
Linux 8.4,
8.6, 8.7, 8.8

1.21—1.27

1.21—1.27
Red Hat
Enterprise
Linux 8.4, 8.5

5.5

Note

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is supported on the AWS (G4, G5, P3, P4, P5), Azure (NC-T4-v3, NC-v3, ND-A100-v4), and GCP (T4, V100, A100) based instances.

Operating
System
Amazon EKS
Kubernetes
Google GKE
Kubernetes
Microsoft Azure
Kubernetes Service

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

1.25, 1.26

1.24, 1.25

1.25

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

1.25, 1.26

1.24, 1.25

1.25
Operating
System

Kubernetes
Red Hat
OpenShift
VMWare vSphere
with Tanzu
Rancher Kubernetes
Engine 2

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

1.21–1.27

7.0 U3c, 8.0 U1
1.21, 1.22, 1.23,
1.24, 1.25

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

1.21–1.27

Red Hat Core OS
4.9, 4.10, 4.11
4.12, 4.13
Red Hat
Enterprise
Linux 8.4,
8.6—8.8

1.21—1.27

1.21—1.27

Supported Container Runtimes

The GPU Operator has been validated in the following scenarios:

Operating System

Containerd 1.4 - 1.7

CRI-O

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Yes

Yes

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Yes

Yes

CentOS 7

Yes

No

Red Hat Core OS (RHCOS)

No

Yes

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Yes

Yes

Note

The GPU Operator has been validated with version 2 of the containerd config file.

Support for KubeVirt and OpenShift Virtualization

Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization is based on KubeVirt.

Operating System

Kubernetes

KubeVirt

OpenShift Virtualization

GPU
Passthrough

vGPU
GPU
Passthrough

vGPU

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

1.21—1.27

0.36+

0.59.1+

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

1.21—1.27

0.36+

0.59.1+

Red Hat Core OS

4.11, 4.12, 4.13

4.13

You can run GPU passthrough and NVIDIA vGPU in the same cluster as long as you use a software version that meets both requirements.

NVIDIA vGPU is incompatible with KubeVirt v0.58.0, v0.58.1, and v0.59.0, as well as OpenShift Virtualization 4.12.0—4.12.2. Starting with KubeVirt v0.58.2 and v0.59.1, and OpenShift Virtualization 4.12.3 and 4.13, you must set the DisableMDEVConfiguration feature gate. Refer to GPU Operator with KubeVirt or NVIDIA GPU Operator with OpenShift Virtualization.

Support for GPUDirect RDMA

Supported operating systems and NVIDIA GPU Drivers with GPUDirect RDMA.

  • Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04 LTS with Network Operator 1.4

  • Red Hat OpenShift 4.10 and 4.11 with Network Operator 1.4

  • CentOS 7 with MOFED installed on the node

For more information on GPUDirect RDMA refer to this document.

Support for GPUDirect Storage

Supported operating systems and NVIDIA GPU Drivers with GPUDirect Storage.

  • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with Network Operator 1.4

  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with Network Operator 1.4

  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.11

Note

Not supported with secure boot. Supported storage types are local NVMe and remote NFS.

Additional Supported Container Management Tools

  • Helm v3

  • Red Hat Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM)