NVIDIA
NVIDIA
k8s-launch-kit
Container
NVIDIA
NVIDIA
k8s-launch-kit

K8s Launch Kit (l8k) is a CLI tool for deploying and managing NVIDIA cloud-native solutions on Kubernetes. The tool helps provide flexible deployment workflows for optimal network performance with SR-IOV, RDMA, and other networking technologies.

K8s Launch Kit - CLI for configuring NVIDIA cloud-native solutions

K8s Launch Kit (l8k) is a CLI tool for deploying and managing NVIDIA cloud-native solutions on Kubernetes. The tool helps provide flexible deployment workflows for optimal network performance with SR-IOV, RDMA, and other networking technologies.

Operation Phases

Discover Cluster Configuration

Deploy a minimal Network Operator profile to automatically discover your cluster's network capabilities and hardware configuration. This phase can be skipped if you provide your own configuration file.

Select the Deployment Profile

Specify the desired deployment profile via CLI flags or with the natural language prompt for the LLM.

Generate Deployment Files

Based on the discovered/provided configuration, generate a complete set of YAML deployment files tailored to your selected network profile.

Usage


K8s Launch Kit (l8k) is a CLI tool for deploying and managing NVIDIA cloud-native solutions on Kubernetes. The tool helps provide flexible deployment workflows for optimal network performance with SR-IOV, RDMA, and other networking technologies.

### Discover Cluster Configuration
Deploy a minimal Network Operator profile to automatically discover your cluster's
network capabilities and hardware configuration by using --discover-cluster-config.
This phase can be skipped if you provide your own configuration file by using --user-config.
This phase requires --kubeconfig to be specified.

### Generate Deployment Files
Based on the discovered or provided configuration, 
generate a complete set of YAML deployment files for the selected network profile. 
Files can be saved to disk using --save-deployment-files.
The profile can be defined manually with --fabric, --deployment-type and --multirail flags,
OR generated by an LLM-assisted profile generator with --prompt (requires --llm-api-key and --llm-vendor).

### Deploy to Cluster
Apply the generated deployment files to your Kubernetes cluster by using --deploy. This phase requires --kubeconfig and can be skipped if --deploy is not specified.

Usage:
  l8k [flags]
  l8k [command]

Available Commands:
  completion  Generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell
  help        Help about any command
  version     Print the version number

Flags:
      --ai                             Enable AI deployment
      --deploy                         Deploy the generated files to the Kubernetes cluster
      --deployment-type string         Select the deployment type (sriov, rdma_shared, host_device)
      --discover-cluster-config        Deploy a thin Network Operator profile to discover cluster capabilities
      --enabled-plugins string         Comma-separated list of plugins to enable (default "network-operator")
      --fabric string                  Select the fabric type to deploy (infiniband, ethernet)
  -h, --help                           help for l8k
      --kubeconfig string              Path to kubeconfig file for cluster deployment (required when using --deploy)
      --llm-api-key string             API key for the LLM API (required when using --prompt)
      --llm-api-url string             API URL for the LLM API (required when using --prompt)
      --llm-vendor string              Vendor of the LLM API (required when using --prompt) (default "openai-azure")
      --log-level string               Log level (debug, info, warn, error) (default "info")
      --multirail                      Enable multirail deployment
      --prompt string                  Path to file with a prompt to use for LLM-assisted profile generation
      --save-cluster-config string     Save discovered cluster configuration to the specified path (default "/opt/nvidia/k8s-launch-kit/cluster-config.yaml")
      --save-deployment-files string   Save generated deployment files to the specified directory (default "/opt/nvidia/k8s-launch-kit/deployment")
      --spectrum-x                     Enable Spectrum X deployment
      --user-config string             Use provided cluster configuration file instead of auto-discovery (skips cluster discovery)

Use "l8k [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Usage Examples

Complete Workflow

Discover cluster config, generate files, and deploy:

l8k --discover-cluster-config --save-cluster-config ./cluster-config.yaml \
    --fabric ethernet --deployment-type sriov --multirail \
    --save-deployment-files ./deployments \
    --deploy --kubeconfig ~/.kube/config

Discover Cluster Configuration

l8k --discover-cluster-config --save-cluster-config ./my-cluster-config.yaml

Use Existing Configuration

Generate and deploy with pre-existing config:

l8k --user-config ./existing-config.yaml \
    --fabric ethernet --deployment-type sriov --multirail \
    --deploy --kubeconfig ~/.kube/config

Generate Deployment Files

l8k --user-config ./config.yaml \
    --fabric ethernet --deployment-type sriov --multirail \
    --save-deployment-files ./deployments

Generate Deployment Files using Natural Language Prompt

echo "I want to enable multirail networking in my AI cluster" > requirements.txt
l8k --user-config ./config.yaml \
    --prompt requirements.txt --llm-vendor openai-azure --llm-api-key <OPENAI_AZURE_KEY> \
    --save-deployment-files ./deployments

Docker container

You can run the l8k tool as a docker container:

docker run -v ~/launch-kubernetes/user-prompt:/user-prompt -v ~/remote-cluster/:/remote-cluster -v /tmp:/output --net=host harbor.mellanox.com/k8s-launch-kit:poc --discover-cluster-config --kubeconfig /remote-cluster/kubeconf.yaml --save-cluster-config /output/config.yaml --log-level debug  --save-deployment-files /output --fabric infiniband --deployment-type rdma_shared --multirail

Don't forget to enable --net=host and mount the necessary directories for input and output files with -v.

Documentation

For information on platform support and getting started, visit the official documentation

Get Help

Enterprise Support Get access to knowledge base articles and support cases or submit a ticket.

NVIDIA AI Enterprise Documentation

Visit the NVIDIA AI Enterprise Documentation Hub for release documentation, deployment guides and more.

License Agreement

The product is licensed under Apache 2.0 and contributions are accepted with a DCO. See the contributing document for more information on how to contribute and the release artifacts.

Publisher
NVIDIA
NVIDIA
Latest Tagv26.4.0
UpdatedJune 10, 2026 UTC
Compressed Size46.68 MB
Multinode SupportNo
Multi-Arch SupportYes