Installation

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

Prerequisites

Before installing Kthena, ensure you have the following:

• Kubernetes cluster (version 1.20 or later)
• kubectl configured to access your cluster
• Helm (version 3.0 or later)
• cert-manager (see the Certificate Management section for more details.)
• Cluster admin permissions

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 v0.1.0 --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 controller.replicas=2 \
  --set router.service.type=LoadBalancer

Common Configuration Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
controller.replicas	Number of controller replicas	1
router.service.type	Router service type	ClusterIP
registry.enabled	Enable model registry	true
autoscaler.enabled	Enable auto-scaling	true

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

Certificate Management

Kthena components such as webhooks and the router require certificates for secure communication.

Default Configuration (Requires cert-manager)

When installing Kthena using the default configuration, cert-manager is required to automatically handle certificate provisioning and management for webhooks and other secure components.

To install cert-manager, follow the official installation guide: Cert Manager Installation

Manual Certificate Management (Fallback Option)

If you cannot use cert-manager in your environment, you can disable it and manually configure certificate management using your own CA bundle.

helm install kthena oci://ghcr.io/volcano-sh/charts/kthena \
  --namespace kthena-system \
  --create-namespace \
  --set global.certManager.enabled=false
  --set global.webhook.caBundle="LS0tLS1CRUdJTi..."

For more details, please refer to the Manual Certificate Management documentation.

Note: Manual certificate management requires additional configuration and maintenance. We recommend using cert-manager for production environments.

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

Kthena provides a CLI tool called kthena to manage your Kthena deployments. You can download CLI from the GitHub release page. Please refer to the CLI documentation for more information.