Helmfile Installation

This section covers manual Helmfile installation of the NVCF control plane and GPU cluster components for self-hosted NVCF deployments.

For a fresh install, start with the Quickstart. Use this Helmfile guide when you need explicit release control, partial recovery, upgrades, or direct access to Helmfile values.

$
git clone https://github.com/nvidia/nvcf.git

$
cd path/to/nvcf-self-managed-stack
$
ls
$
# Expected contents: helmfile.d/  environments/  secrets/  global.yaml.gotmpl  ...

Namespace Requirements

Each control-plane Helm chart must be installed into a specific namespace. These namespace assignments are fixed and must not be changed because service-to-service cluster DNS addressing and Vault (OpenBao) authentication claims depend on this layout.

Prerequisites

Required Tools and Software

The following tools must be installed on your deployment machine:

• kubectl
• helm >= 3.12
• helmfile >= 1.1.0 (recommended: 1.1.x)
• helm-diff plugin >=3.11

• A kubernetes cluster (CSP agnostic or on-prem).
• Gateway API ingress prepared as described in Gateway quickstart if you are exposing NVCF through Gateway API
• Artifacts must be available in a registry that your Kubernetes cluster can access. This can be the nvcf-onprem registry for NVCF control plane service artifacts, but function containers and helm charts must be configured to a user-managed registry. See self-hosted-artifact-manifest and self-hosted-image-mirroring.
• The nvcf-self-managed-stack repository must be downloaded to your local machine (see download-nvcf-self-managed-stack).

$
# Install helm-diff plugin (required for helmfile)
$
helm plugin install https://github.com/databus23/helm-diff

$
kubectl version
$
# Ensure the Client Version and Server Version are within one minor version of each other.
$
# Example: Client v1.32.x against Server v1.31.x is OK.
$
#          Client v1.32.x against Server v1.29.x will cause failures.

Access Requirements

• kubectl configured to the kubernetes cluster you are deploying to

• Personal NGC API Key from ngc.nvidia.com authenticated with nvcf-onprem organization only if you pull artifacts directly from NGC or use NGC as your registry

• Registry credentials for your container registry (ECR, NGC, etc.). See third-party-registries-self-hosted for setup instructions

• Local Helm/Docker authentication to your container registry where NVCF charts are stored. Helmfile pulls OCI charts during deployment, so your local environment must be authenticated. Examples:

  • AWS ECR: aws ecr get-login-password --region <region> | helm registry login --username AWS --password-stdin <account-id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com
  • NGC: docker login nvcr.io -u '$oauthtoken' -p <NGC_API_KEY>
  • Other registries: Use docker login or helm registry login as appropriate for your registry

Installation Steps

The installation flow is as follows.

1. Prepare Gateway API ingress
2. Configure your environment file (environments/<environment-name>.yaml)
3. Configure your secrets file (secrets/<environment-name>-secrets.yaml)
4. Configure image pull secrets (skip if using a CSP registry with built-in credential helpers)
5. Deploy the NVCF control plane components
6. Verify the control plane
7. Register each GPU cluster with the control plane
8. Install the NVCA operator on each GPU cluster

Step 1. Prepare Gateway API ingress

Complete Gateway quickstart before you configure and apply the Helmfile stack.

Keep these values from the Gateway quickstart:

$
echo "$GATEWAY_ADDR"
$
echo "$HTTP_GATEWAY_NAMESPACE/$HTTP_GATEWAY_NAME"
$
echo "$GRPC_GATEWAY_NAMESPACE/$GRPC_GATEWAY_NAME"

Use GATEWAY_ADDR as global.domain in your environment file. Use the Gateway names, namespaces, and listener names from Gateway quickstart in ingress.gatewayApi.gateways.

Split or multi-cluster gRPC invocation is not enabled by default. If you need workers in a compute cluster to reach grpc-proxy in the control-plane cluster, complete gRPC Invocation Enablement before you deploy or sync the control plane.

Step 2. Configure your environment file (environments/<environment-name>.yaml)

Environment configuration files define how NVCF is deployed in your specific environment. They are YAML files that provide values to the Helm charts.

Set HELMFILE_ENV to your environment name and copy the base configuration. The filename must match HELMFILE_ENV because Helmfile uses it to select the environment file. The template below shows the values to configure for Amazon EKS (cp-env-eks-example.yaml).

$
cd path/to/nvcf-self-managed-stack
$
export HELMFILE_ENV="<environment-name>"
$
cp environments/base.yaml "environments/${HELMFILE_ENV}.yaml"

1
global:
2
3
  # Domain for external access (used by Gateway API HTTPRoutes)
4
  domain: "GATEWAY_ADDR" # Replace with ELB domain
5
6
  # =============================================================================
7
  # Helm Chart Sources Configuration
8
  # =============================================================================
9
  # Configure the OCI registry where NVCF Helm charts are stored.
10
  # This must point to a registry containing the NVCF chart packages.
11
  # =============================================================================
12
  helm:
13
    sources:
14
      registry: <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<your-region>.amazonaws.com
15
      repository: <your-ecr-repository-name>
16
      # NGC Example:
17
      # registry: nvcr.io
18
      # repository: YOUR_ORG/YOUR_TEAM # e.g. 123456789102/YOUR_TEAM
19
      # ECR Example:
20
      # registry: <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<your-region>.amazonaws.com
21
      # repository: <your-ecr-repository-name>
22
23
  # =============================================================================
24
  # Container Image Registry Configuration
25
  # =============================================================================
26
  # Configure the container registry where NVCF service images are stored.
27
  # These images are pulled by Kubernetes when deploying the NVCF stack.
28
  # =============================================================================
29
  image:
30
    registry: <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<your-region>.amazonaws.com
31
    repository: <your-ecr-repository-name>
32
    # NGC Example:
33
    # registry: nvcr.io
34
    # repository: YOUR_ORG/YOUR_TEAM # e.g. 123456789102/YOUR_TEAM
35
    # ECR Example:
36
    # registry: <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<your-region>.amazonaws.com
37
    # repository: <your-ecr-repository-name>
38
39
  nodeSelectors:
40
    enabled: true # Set true when using dedicated node labels for NVCF workloads
41
    vault:
42
      key: nvcf.nvidia.com/workload
43
      value: vault
44
    cassandra:
45
      key: nvcf.nvidia.com/workload
46
      value: cassandra
47
    controlplane:
48
      key: nvcf.nvidia.com/workload
49
      value: control-plane
50
51
  storageClass: "gp3" # Customize to your storage class
52
  storageSize: "10Gi" # Customize to your storage size
53
54
  # =============================================================================
55
  # Observability Configuration
56
  # =============================================================================
57
  # Enable distributed tracing via OTLP (dsiabled by default).
58
  # This must point to an OTLP-compatible collector.
59
  # =============================================================================
60
  observability:
61
    tracing:
62
      enabled: false
63
      collectorEndpoint: ""
64
      collectorPort: 4317
65
      collectorProtocol: http
66
      # Example:
67
      # enabled: true
68
      # collectorEndpoint: <your-collector-endpoint>
69
      # collectorPort: <your-collector-port>
70
      # collectorProtocol: <your-collector-protocol>
71
72
fakeGpuOperator:
73
  enabled: false # If deploying locally with no GPUs, true
74
  ubuntu:
75
    imageName: alpine-k8s
76
    tag: 1.30.12
77
78
accounts: # Default NVCF account configuration
79
  limits:
80
    maxFunctions: 10
81
    maxTasks: 10 # Note: Tasks (NVCT) are not currently supported for EA
82
    maxTelemetries: 10 # Note: BYOO is not currently supported for EA
83
    maxRegistryCreds: 10
84
85
# These static global values are processed in the values template
86
nats:
87
  enabled: true
88
89
cassandra:
90
  enabled: true
91
92
openbao:
93
  enabled: true
94
  migrations:
95
    issuerDiscovery:
96
      enabled: true # Recommended true for EKS - discovers OIDC issuer automatically
97
98
# Ingress Gateway Configuration
99
ingress:
100
  gatewayApi:
101
    enabled: true
102
    controllerNamespace: "envoy-gateway-system" # must be set by the environment
103
    routes:
104
      nvcfApi:
105
        routeAnnotations: {}
106
      apiKeys:
107
        routeAnnotations: {}
108
      invocation:
109
        routeAnnotations: {}
110
      grpc:
111
        routeAnnotations: {}
112
    gateways:
113
      shared:
114
        name: "nvcf-gateway" # must be set by the environment
115
        namespace: "envoy-gateway" # must be set by the environment
116
        listenerName: http
117
      grpc:
118
        name: "nvcf-gateway" # must be set by the environment
119
        namespace: "envoy-gateway" # must be set by the environment
120
        listenerName: tcp

domain and ingress Configuration

The domain and ingress sections of the environment file are used to configure the external access to the NVCF control plane.

If using the above example directly for EKS, replace GATEWAY_ADDR with the Gateway load balancer address from Gateway quickstart.

1
domain: "GATEWAY_ADDR" # Replace with ELB domain

If using the above example directly for EKS, your ingress configuration would look like this:

1
ingress:
2
   gatewayApi:
3
      enabled: true
4
      controllerNamespace: "envoy-gateway-system"
5
      routes:
6
         nvcfApi:
7
            routeAnnotations: {}
8
         apiKeys:
9
            routeAnnotations: {}
10
         invocation:
11
            routeAnnotations: {}
12
         grpc:
13
            routeAnnotations: {}
14
      gateways:
15
         shared:
16
            name: "nvcf-gateway"
17
            namespace: "envoy-gateway"
18
            listenerName: http
19
         grpc:
20
            name: "nvcf-gateway"
21
            namespace: "envoy-gateway"
22
            listenerName: tcp

nodeSelectors Configuration

The nodeSelectors section of the environment file is used to configure the nodes on which the NVCF control plane components are deployed. Disable this unless you have a cluster with node selectors pre-configured on node pools within your cluster.

If your cluster uses dedicated node labels for NVCF workloads, enable this section with the following configuration:

1
nodeSelectors:
2
  enabled: true
3
  vault:
4
    key: nvcf.nvidia.com/workload
5
    value: vault
6
  cassandra:
7
    key: nvcf.nvidia.com/workload
8
    value: cassandra
9
  controlplane:
10
    key: nvcf.nvidia.com/workload
11
    value: control-plane

cassandra Resource Tuning

Cassandra needs enough memory to complete first boot, commit-log replay, and the schema migration hooks. The default self-managed stack uses cassandra.resourcesPreset: xlarge, which maps to a Bitnami Cassandra preset with a 3 GiB memory request and a 6 GiB memory limit. Do not use the small preset for cloud installs. It can OOM-kill Cassandra during initialization and cause migration failures.

Common preset values:

All listed presets include a 50Mi ephemeral-storage request and 2Gi ephemeral-storage limit.

If Cassandra pods restart with OOMKilled, or the cassandra-migrations job fails with a consistency-level error while Cassandra pods are restarting, increase the preset in your environment file:

1
cassandra:
2
  resourcesPreset: "2xlarge"

Then apply the change to just Cassandra:

$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector name=cassandra sync

helm and image Configuration

The helm and image sections tell NVCF which registries to pull Helm charts and container images from.

• helm.sources: The OCI registry where NVCF Helm charts are stored. Helmfile pulls charts from here at deploy time (requires local authentication. See Access Requirements).
• image: The container registry where NVCF service images are stored. Kubernetes pulls images from here at runtime.

1
# Helm Chart Sources Configuration
2
helm:
3
  sources:
4
    registry: "nvcr.io"
5
    repository: "YOUR_ORG/YOUR_TEAM"
6
    # NGC Example:
7
    # registry: nvcr.io
8
    # repository: 123456789102/YOUR_TEAM
9
    # ECR Example:
10
    # registry: <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<your-region>.amazonaws.com
11
    # repository: <your-ecr-repository-name>
12
13
# Container Image Registry Configuration
14
image:
15
  registry: nvcr.io
16
  repository: YOUR_ORG/YOUR_TEAM
17
  # NGC Example:
18
  # registry: nvcr.io
19
  # repository: 123456789102/YOUR_TEAM
20
  # ECR Example:
21
  # registry: <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<your-region>.amazonaws.com
22
  # repository: <your-ecr-repository-name>

Overriding Helm Chart Values

1
# Example: helmfile.d/01-dependencies.yaml.gotmpl
2
- name: cassandra
3
  version: 0.9.0
4
  condition: cassandra.enabled
5
  namespace: cassandra-system
6
  <<: *dependency
7
  values:
8
    - ../global.yaml.gotmpl
9
    - ../secrets/{{ requiredEnv "HELMFILE_ENV" }}-secrets.yaml
10
    - cassandra:
11
        resources:
12
          requests:
13
            cpu: "2"
14
            memory: 4096Mi
15
          limits:
16
            cpu: "8"
17
            memory: 8192Mi

1
values:
2
  - api:
3
      image:
4
        tag: 2.223.9
5
      env:
6
        NVCF_REGISTRIES_ACCOUNT_PROVISIONING_ARTIFACT_TYPES: "CONTAINER,HELM"

$
# Preview changes
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector name=cassandra template
$
$
# Apply changes to just that release
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector name=cassandra sync

Worker Image Version Overrides

The NVCF API uses the worker image versions in its nvcf.sidecars.* configuration. To pin worker sidecars for one Helmfile deployment, add an inline remote-config override to the api release in helmfile.d/02-core.yaml.gotmpl:

1
- name: api
2
  version: 1.19.3
3
  namespace: nvcf
4
  inherit:
5
    - template: service
6
  values:
7
    - ../global.yaml.gotmpl
8
    - ../secrets/{{ requiredEnv "HELMFILE_ENV" }}-secrets.yaml
9
    - api:
10
        remoteConfig:
11
          enabled: true
12
          configData:
13
            nvcf:
14
              sidecars:
15
                init-container: "${nvcf.sidecars.hostname}/${nvcf.sidecars.repository}/nvcf_worker_init:<tag>"
16
                utils-container-image:
17
                  go: "${nvcf.sidecars.hostname}/${nvcf.sidecars.repository}/nvcf_worker_utils:<tag>"
18
                niclls-container: "${nvcf.sidecars.hostname}/${nvcf.sidecars.repository}/nvcf_worker_niclls:<tag>"
19
  needs:
20
    - ess/ess-api

The ${nvcf.sidecars.hostname} and ${nvcf.sidecars.repository} placeholders resolve from the stack image registry and repository settings. Re-include global.yaml.gotmpl and the secrets file because defining values on the release replaces the inherited values list. Keep the existing needs entry on the release.

Step 3. Configure your secrets file (secrets/<environment-name>-secrets.yaml)

Secrets configuration contains any sensitive data required for NVCF operation. The image pull secret credentials you insert here will be used to bootstrap the NVCF API with registry credentials for all worker components (function sidecars), function containers and helm charts.

These credentials will then be used for function deployments. Note that if the registry credentials are not correct you can always update them using the steps in third-party-registries-self-hosted.

Copy the secrets template using the same HELMFILE_ENV value from Step 2. The filename must match HELMFILE_ENV because Helmfile loads the corresponding secrets file. The example below shows the required structure (example-secrets.yaml). You must replace all instances of REPLACE_WITH_BASE64_DOCKER_CREDENTIAL with your actual base64-encoded registry credentials.

$
cd path/to/nvcf-self-managed-stack
$
cp secrets/secrets.yaml.template "secrets/${HELMFILE_ENV}-secrets.yaml"

1
# Required structure for any environment secrets.
2
# This is the minimal set of values to provide.
3
4
# Notes:
5
# Cassandra:
6
#   The password should match the value set in the cassandra keyspace migrations
7
#
8
# API:
9
#   The value for the registry will be used in three places, as it is
10
#   expected the same registry is used as a single source for all images.
11
#     openbao.migrations.env[1].value
12
#     api.accountBootstrap.registryCredentials[0].secret.value
13
#     api.accountBootstrap.registryCredentials[1].secret.value
14
15
openbao:
16
  migrations:
17
    env:
18
      # Stored in OpenBao shared secrets (written by migration job)
19
      - name: DEFAULT_CASSANDRA_PASSWORD
20
        value: "ch@ng3m3"
21
      # Stored in OpenBao KV for nvcf-api (written by migration job)
22
      - name: NVCF_API_SIDECARS_IMAGE_PULL_SECRET
23
        value: REPLACE_WITH_BASE64_DOCKER_CREDENTIAL # Replace with base64 credentials (ex. NGC / ECR / etc.) for your registry, refer to Working with Third-Party Registries.
24
      - name: ADMIN_CLIENT_ID
25
        value: ncp # <- keep this value
26
27
api:
28
  accountBootstrap:
29
    registryCredentials:
30
      - registryHostname: nvcr.io # ECR: <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<your-region>.amazonaws.com
31
        secret:
32
          name: nvcr-containers # ECR: ecr-containers
33
          value: REPLACE_WITH_BASE64_DOCKER_CREDENTIAL # Replace with base64 credentials (ex. NGC / ECR / etc.) for your registry, refer to Working with Third-Party Registries.
34
        artifactTypes: ["CONTAINER"]
35
        tags: []
36
        description: "NGC Container registry"
37
      - registryHostname: helm.ngc.nvidia.com # ECR: <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<your-region>.amazonaws.com
38
        secret:
39
          name: nvcr-helmcharts # ECR: ecr-helmcharts
40
          value: REPLACE_WITH_BASE64_DOCKER_CREDENTIAL # Replace with base64 credentials (ex. NGC / ECR / etc.) for your registry, refer to Working with Third-Party Registries.
41
        artifactTypes: ["HELM"]
42
        tags: []
43
        description: "NGC Helm registry"

Generating Base64-encoded Registry Credentials

Registry credentials must be base64-encoded in the format username:password. For detailed instructions on setting up credentials for specific registries (including IAM user creation for ECR), see third-party-registries-self-hosted.

$
# Replace YOUR_NGC_API_KEY with your actual personal NGC API key from ngc.nvidia.com
$
printf '%s' '$oauthtoken:YOUR_NGC_API_KEY' | base64 | tr -d '\n'

Step 4. Configure image pull secrets (conditional)

The secrets file you configured in Step 3 handles API bootstrap registry credentials. These allow the NVCF API service to pull user function containers at runtime. Separately, Kubernetes itself needs image pull secrets to pull the NVCF control plane service images (API, SIS, Cassandra, etc.) from your registry.

If your image registry is private and your cluster nodes do not have built-in credential helpers, you must create Kubernetes docker-registry secrets in each NVCF namespace and configure the helmfile to reference them.

1. Create the pull secret in each NVCF namespace (create-nvcr-pull-secrets.sh):

$
export NGC_API_KEY="<your-ngc-api-key>"
$
$
for ns in cassandra-system nats-system nvcf api-keys ess sis \
>
          vault-system cert-manager; do
$
  kubectl create namespace "$ns" --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -
$
done
$
$
for ns in cassandra-system nats-system nvcf api-keys ess sis \
>
          vault-system cert-manager; do
$
  kubectl create secret docker-registry nvcr-pull-secret \
>
    --docker-server=nvcr.io \
>
    --docker-username='$oauthtoken' \
>
    --docker-password="$NGC_API_KEY" \
>
    --namespace="$ns" \
>
    --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -
$
done

For registries other than NGC, replace --docker-server, --docker-username, and --docker-password with your registry credentials.

2. Reference the secret in your Helmfile environment. The Helmfile propagates imagePullSecrets to all NVCF charts automatically. Add the secret name to your environment YAML (e.g. environments/<your-env>.yaml):

1
global:
2
  imagePullSecrets:
3
    - name: nvcr-pull-secret

This replaces any need for a separate admission controller or policy engine to inject pull secrets.

Step 5. Deploy the NVCF control plane components

Set kubectl context to your cluster.

Before deploying, preview the rendered Kubernetes manifests:

$
cd path/to/nvcf-self-managed-stack
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile template

This command will:

1. Render all Helm charts with your environment and secrets
2. Run validation hooks
3. Display the resulting Kubernetes manifests

Deploy the self-managed stack:

$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile sync

Deployment Progression and Monitoring

Helmfile will deploy services in the correct order with dependencies:

Phase 1: dependency layer (5-10 minutes)

• NATS messaging service
• OpenBao (secrets management)
• Cassandra (database)
• Helmfile selector: release-group=dependencies

Phase 2: control-plane services (5-10 minutes)

• NVCF API Service
• SIS (Spot Instance Service)
• gRPC Proxy
• Invocation Service
• API Keys Service
• ESS API
• Notary Service
• Admin Issuer Proxy
• Helmfile selector: release-group=services

$
kubectl get events -n nvcf -w

Phase 3: ingress configuration (1-2 minutes)

• Gateway API Routes (if enabled)
• Helmfile selector: release-group=ingress

GPU clusters are installed after the control plane succeeds. Use Step 7. Configure the compute-plane Helmfile environment and Step 8. Register and install each GPU cluster for the split compute-plane bundle.

Open a separate terminal to monitor the deployment progress:

Monitor each deployment phase:

$
# Check namespace creation and preparation
$
kubectl get ns
$
$
# Phase 1: Check dependency services (release-group=dependencies)
$
kubectl get pods -n nats-system        # Should see nats-0, nats-1, nats-2
$
kubectl get pods -n vault-system       # Should see openbao-server-0, openbao-server-1, openbao-server-2
$
kubectl get pods -n cassandra-system   # Should see cassandra-0, cassandra-1, cassandra-2
$
# Note: It's normal to see cassandra-initialize-cluster pods with "Error" status.
>
# The initialization job retries on failure - as long as one pod shows "Completed"
>
# and cassandra-migrations is Running/Completed, the deployment is progressing normally.
>
>
# Phase 2: Check control plane services (release-group=services)
>
kubectl get events -n nvcf -w       # Watch for account bootstrap failures
>
kubectl get pods -n nvcf            # API, invocation-service, grpc-proxy, notary-service
>
kubectl get pods -n sis             # Spot Instance Service
>
kubectl get pods -n api-keys        # API Keys service, admin-issuer-proxy
>
...
>
>
# Phase 3: Check ingress (release-group=ingress)
>
kubectl get httproutes -A          # Gateway API routes (if enabled)

Recovering from Partial Deployments

Redeploying dependencies if needed:

If a dependency service (Cassandra, NATS, OpenBao) fails or gets stuck, you can safely redeploy it individually:

$
# Redeploy only Cassandra
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector name=cassandra apply
$
$
# Redeploy all dependencies (NATS, Cassandra, OpenBao)
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector release-group=dependencies apply

Recovering from services failures without destroying dependencies:

If the release-group=services deployment hangs or fails (for example, account bootstrap failure due to secrets misconfiguration), you can recover without destroying your dependencies.

1. Monitor for failures:

In a separate terminal, watch events in the nvcf namespace:

$
kubectl get events -n nvcf -w

2. Check the account bootstrap logs if it failed:

$
kubectl logs job/nvcf-api-account-bootstrap -n nvcf

3. Check the NVCF API logs for detailed error messages:

$
kubectl logs -n nvcf -l app.kubernetes.io/name=nvcf-api --tail=100

4. Fix the root cause, for example correct your secrets/<environment-name>-secrets.yaml file.

5. Destroy the services and downstream releases:

$
# Destroy services release group
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector release-group=services destroy
$
$
# Destroy downstream releases (ingress, admin-issuer-proxy)
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector release-group=ingress destroy
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector name=admin-issuer-proxy destroy

6. Clean up the service namespaces:

$
kubectl delete namespace nvcf api-keys ess sis --ignore-not-found

7. Recreate namespaces and labels. Gateway API routing requires these labels:

$
kubectl create namespace api-keys && \
>
kubectl create namespace ess && \
>
kubectl create namespace sis && \
>
kubectl create namespace nvcf
$
$
kubectl label namespace api-keys nvcf/platform=true && \
>
kubectl label namespace sis nvcf/platform=true && \
>
kubectl label namespace ess nvcf/platform=true && \
>
kubectl label namespace nvcf nvcf/platform=true

8. Re-sync services. This triggers fresh post-install hooks:

$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector release-group=services sync

9. Sync remaining releases after services succeed:

$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector name=admin-issuer-proxy sync
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector release-group=ingress sync

Full restart if dependencies are also broken:

If dependencies are corrupted or you prefer a clean slate, follow the complete Uninstalling steps, fix your configuration, then redeploy from Step 1.

Enabling Vanity Gateway

Vanity Gateway is optional and disabled by default. It is available only in stack packages that include the Vanity Gateway addon. If your extracted stack package does not contain a vanity-gateway release and vanityGateway route values, skip this section until you use a stack package that includes them.

Enable it only when you need a customer-facing hostname or path mapping layer in front of the standard NVCF service routes.

In stack packages that include the addon, set the value shape in your environment file:

1
addons:
2
  vanityGateway:
3
    enabled: true
4
    mappingConfig: {}

By default, the route host is vanity.<domain> and the backend is vanity-gateway.nvcf:8080. Put deployment-specific host and path mappings under addons.vanityGateway.mappingConfig. If your deployment needs custom vanity hosts, use the route hostname overrides supported by your stack package and create matching DNS records.

After confirming your stack package includes the vanity-gateway release, preview and apply the service plus gateway routes:

$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector name=vanity-gateway template
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector name=vanity-gateway sync
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector release-group=ingress sync

Verify only when the addon is present and enabled:

$
kubectl get deploy,svc -n nvcf -l app.kubernetes.io/name=vanity-gateway
$
kubectl get httproute -A | grep -i vanity
$
curl -H "Host: vanity.<domain>" "http://<gateway-address>/health"

Recovering from Gateway Address Changes

If your Gateway or its underlying load balancer was deleted and recreated (e.g., due to a TCPRoute misconfiguration or infrastructure change), the external address will change. Services that depend on the domain value — including Gateway API routes, SIS cluster registration, API hostname resolution, and the optional Vanity Gateway route — will break until the new address is propagated.

1. Get the new Gateway address:

$
GATEWAY_ADDR=$(kubectl get gateway nvcf-gateway -n envoy-gateway -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')
$
echo "$GATEWAY_ADDR"

2. Update your environment file with the new address:

$
# Edit environments/<environment-name>.yaml
$
# Change: domain: "OLD_ADDRESS"
$
# To:     domain: "NEW_GATEWAY_ADDR"

3. Re-sync ingress and services that depend on the domain:

$
# Re-sync gateway routes (picks up new domain)
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector release-group=ingress sync
$
$
# Re-sync services that embed the domain (API, admin-issuer-proxy)
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector release-group=services sync
$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile --selector name=admin-issuer-proxy sync

4. Verify routes are using the new address:

$
kubectl get httproutes -A
$
kubectl get tcproutes -A

Step 6: Verify the Installation

Verify the installation is successful by checking the pods are running and the helm releases are successful.

$
# View all pods with node assignment and status, should all be Running or Completed state
$
kubectl get pods -A -o wide
$
$
# Check helm releases status
$
helm list -A

Verify API Connectivity (Optional)

If you configured Gateway API ingress, you can verify the NVCF API is accessible by running the following commands.

1. Set up environment variables:

$
# Get the Gateway address from Gateway quickstart
$
export GATEWAY_ADDR=$(kubectl get gateway nvcf-gateway -n envoy-gateway -o jsonpath='{.status.addresses[0].value}')
$
echo "Gateway Address: $GATEWAY_ADDR"

2. Generate an admin token:

$
# Generate an admin API token
$
export NVCF_TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST "http://${GATEWAY_ADDR}/v1/admin/keys" \
>
  -H "Host: api-keys.${GATEWAY_ADDR}" \
>
  | grep -o '"value":"[^"]*"' | cut -d'"' -f4)
$
$
echo "Token generated: ${NVCF_TOKEN:0:20}..."

3. List functions. The list should be empty initially:

$
# List all functions
$
curl -s -X GET "http://${GATEWAY_ADDR}/v2/nvcf/functions" \
>
  -H "Host: api.${GATEWAY_ADDR}" \
>
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${NVCF_TOKEN}" | jq .

Step 7. Configure the compute-plane Helmfile environment

Use deploy/stacks/nvcf-compute-plane from the source repository for each GPU cluster. The compute-plane Helmfile installs helm-nvca-operator and wires it to the control plane values returned by cluster registration.

Create an environment file in the compute-plane directory. Use the same Helm chart and image registry mirror as the control plane. Set the service URLs to addresses reachable from the GPU cluster. If the GPU cluster reaches the control plane through one load balancer with hostname-based Gateway routing, keep the URL pointed at the load balancer and set the host-header overrides to the route hostnames.

$
cd path/to/nvcf
$
touch deploy/stacks/nvcf-compute-plane/environments/<environment-name>.yaml

1
global:
2
  helm:
3
    sources:
4
      registry: <your-chart-registry>
5
      repository: <your-chart-repository>
6
7
  image:
8
    registry: <your-image-registry>
9
    repository: <your-image-repository>
10
11
  imagePullSecrets:
12
    - name: nvcr-pull-secret
13
14
  nvcaOperator:
15
    selfManaged:
16
      icmsServiceURL: "http://<GATEWAY_ADDR>"
17
      icmsServiceHostHeaderOverride: "sis.<STACK_DOMAIN>"
18
      revalServiceURL: "http://<GATEWAY_ADDR>"
19
      revalServiceHostHeaderOverride: "reval.<STACK_DOMAIN>"
20
      natsURL: "nats://<GATEWAY_ADDR>:4222"
21
      natsHostOverride: "nats.<STACK_DOMAIN>"

If your GPU cluster can resolve per-service DNS names directly, set the service URLs to those names and omit the host-header override fields.

Create the pull secret in nvca-operator on the GPU cluster before installing NVCA. Helmfile references the secret from global.imagePullSecrets, and the operator propagates it to the managed namespaces after installation.

$
kubectl --kubeconfig <gpu-cluster-kubeconfig> \
>
  create namespace nvca-operator --dry-run=client -o yaml | \
>
  kubectl --kubeconfig <gpu-cluster-kubeconfig> apply -f -
$
kubectl --kubeconfig <gpu-cluster-kubeconfig> \
>
  create secret docker-registry nvcr-pull-secret \
>
  --docker-server=nvcr.io \
>
  --docker-username='$oauthtoken' \
>
  --docker-password="<registry-password>" \
>
  --namespace=nvca-operator \
>
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl --kubeconfig <gpu-cluster-kubeconfig> apply -f -

Step 8. Register and install each GPU cluster

Register each GPU cluster before installing NVCA. Registration discovers the GPU cluster’s OIDC issuer and JWKS, records them with SIS/ICMS, and writes the cluster identity values that the operator chart consumes.

Use KUBECONFIG_FILE for multi-cluster installs. It makes both registration and Helmfile target the GPU cluster instead of the control-plane cluster. For a complete Amazon EKS example, see the CSP End-to-End Example.

The compute-plane Makefile runs nvcf-cli init before cluster register. Point NVCF_CLI_CONFIG at a CLI config that can reach the control-plane gateway.

1
base_http_url: "http://<GATEWAY_ADDR>"
2
invoke_url: "http://<GATEWAY_ADDR>"
3
api_keys_service_url: "http://<GATEWAY_ADDR>"
4
icms_url: "http://<GATEWAY_ADDR>"
5
6
api_keys_host: "api-keys.<STACK_DOMAIN>"
7
api_host: "api.<STACK_DOMAIN>"
8
icms_host: "sis.<STACK_DOMAIN>"
9
invoke_host: "invocation.<STACK_DOMAIN>"
10
11
api_keys_service_id: "nvidia-cloud-functions-ncp-service-id-aketm"
12
api_keys_issuer_service: "nvcf-api"
13
api_keys_owner_id: "svc@nvcf-api.local"
14
client_id: "<nca-id>"

Run the compute-plane target from the repository root. The target writes deploy/stacks/nvcf-compute-plane/registration/<gpu-cluster-name>-register-values.yaml.

$
make -C deploy/stacks/nvcf-compute-plane register-cluster \
>
  CLUSTER_NAME=<gpu-cluster-name> \
>
  NCA_ID=<nca-id> \
>
  CLUSTER_REGION=<region> \
>
  ICMS_URL="http://<GATEWAY_ADDR>" \
>
  KUBECONFIG_FILE=<gpu-cluster-kubeconfig> \
>
  NVCF_CLI=<path-to-nvcf-cli> \
>
  NVCF_CLI_CONFIG=<path-to-nvcf-cli-gpu-register.yaml>

Install the NVCA operator on that GPU cluster. The install target copies the registration file into out/ and runs Helmfile with HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name>.

$
make -C deploy/stacks/nvcf-compute-plane install \
>
  CLUSTER_NAME=<gpu-cluster-name> \
>
  HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> \
>
  NCA_ID=<nca-id> \
>
  KUBECONFIG_FILE=<gpu-cluster-kubeconfig>

Verify the operator and backend on the GPU cluster:

$
kubectl --kubeconfig <gpu-cluster-kubeconfig> \
>
  rollout status deployment/nvca-operator -n nvca-operator --timeout=10m
$
$
kubectl --kubeconfig <gpu-cluster-kubeconfig> \
>
  get nvcfbackends -n nvca-operator
$
$
kubectl --kubeconfig <gpu-cluster-kubeconfig> \
>
  get secret nvcr-pull-secret -n nvca-system
$
$
kubectl --kubeconfig <gpu-cluster-kubeconfig> \
>
  get pods -n nvca-system

For a multi-cluster EKS install, this is the expected GPU cluster validation: the control plane is installed, each GPU cluster is registered with its own kubeconfig, the NVCA Operator is installed on that GPU cluster, and the NVCFBackend reports a healthy agent. Repeat registration, install, and health checks for each GPU cluster. Function execution also requires worker pods on the GPU cluster to reach the control-plane worker endpoints. Do not use function deployment or invocation as the acceptance check until those endpoints are reachable from the GPU cluster.

Repeat Step 8 for each additional GPU cluster. Use a unique CLUSTER_NAME for each cluster.

Next Steps

After the control plane and GPU clusters are installed, proceed to Self-Managed Clusters for NVCA operations and troubleshooting.

Uninstalling

To remove the NVCF installation:

$
HELMFILE_ENV=<environment-name> helmfile destroy

After helmfile destroy completes, clean up the namespaces:

$
# Delete NVCF namespaces
$
kubectl delete namespace cassandra-system nats-system vault-system \
>
  nvcf api-keys ess sis \
>
  --ignore-not-found

To also remove the Gateway infrastructure created by Gateway quickstart:

$
# Delete the Gateway and GatewayClass resources
$
kubectl delete gateway nvcf-gateway -n envoy-gateway --ignore-not-found
$
kubectl delete gatewayclass eg --ignore-not-found
$
$
# Uninstall Envoy Gateway
$
helm uninstall eg -n envoy-gateway-system
$
$
# Delete the gateway namespaces
$
kubectl delete namespace envoy-gateway envoy-gateway-system --ignore-not-found
$
$
# (Optional) Remove Gateway API CRDs if no longer needed
$
kubectl delete -f https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/gateway-api/releases/download/v1.2.0/experimental-install.yaml