Installation

This guide will help you install Kthena on your Kubernetes cluster.

Prerequisites

Before installing Kthena, ensure you have the following:

Required Prerequisites

• Kubernetes cluster (version 1.20 or later)
• kubectl configured to access your cluster
• Helm (version 3.0 or later)
• Cluster admin permissions

Optional Prerequisites

• cert-manager - Required only if using the cert-manager certificate management mode (see Certificate Management for details)

Installation Methods

Method 1: Helm Installation (Recommended)

Kthena Helm charts are published to the GitHub Container Registry (GHCR).

1. Install Kthena directly from GHCR:

   helm install kthena oci://ghcr.io/volcano-sh/charts/kthena --version v0.2.0 --namespace kthena-system --create-namespace

Method 2: Manual Installation with GitHub Release Manifests

Kthena provides all necessary components in a single manifest file for easy installation from GitHub Releases.

1. Apply the Kthena manifest:

   kubectl apply -f https://github.com/volcano-sh/kthena/releases/latest/download/kthena-install.yaml

   To install a specific version, replace latest with the desired release tag (e.g., v1.2.3):

   kubectl apply -f https://github.com/volcano-sh/kthena/releases/download/vX.Y.Z/kthena-install.yaml

Method 3: Helm Installation from GitHub Release Package

You can also download the Helm chart package from GitHub releases and install it locally.

1. Download the Helm chart package:

   For the latest version:

   curl -L -o kthena.tgz https://github.com/volcano-sh/kthena/releases/latest/download/kthena.tgz

   For a specific version (replace vX.Y.Z with the desired release tag):

   curl -L -o kthena.tgz https://github.com/volcano-sh/kthena/releases/download/vX.Y.Z/kthena.tgz

2. Install from the downloaded package:

   helm install kthena kthena.tgz --namespace kthena-system --create-namespace

Configuration Options

Helm Values

You can customize the installation by providing values:

helm install kthena oci://ghcr.io/volcano-sh/charts/kthena \
  --namespace kthena-system \
  --create-namespace \
  --set workload.controllerManager.replicas=2 \
  --set networking.kthenaRouter.tls.enabled=true

Common Configuration Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
workload.controllerManager.replicas	Number of controller manager replicas	1
networking.kthenaRouter.replicas	Number of router replicas	1
networking.kthenaRouter.tls.enabled	Enable TLS for the router	false
global.certManagementMode	Certificate management mode (auto, cert-manager, manual)	auto

Full Values Reference

For a complete list of all configurable Helm values, see the Helm Chart Values Reference.

Verification

After installation, verify that all components are running:

# Check all pods are running
kubectl get pods -n kthena-system

# Check CRDs are installed (CRDs are included in the main manifest/chart)
kubectl get crd | grep kthena

# Check services
kubectl get svc -n kthena-system

Optional Components

Gang Scheduling

Kthena leverages Volcano (a high-performance batch system for Kubernetes) to provide gang scheduling capabilities.

If you need gang scheduling capabilities, you can install Volcano by following the official installation guide of Volcano.

Kthena CLI

The Kthena CLI provides kubectl‑style commands for managing AI inference workloads on Kubernetes, featuring quick deployment via curated templates and optional integration with kubectl‑ai for natural‑language command generation.

Installation

Download the latest binary from the releases page or build from source:

go install github.com/volcano-sh/kthena/cli/kthena@latest

Please see Kthena CLI Documentation for more details.