dynamo_cloud.md

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# Dynamo Cloud Kubernetes Platform (Dynamo Deploy)

The Dynamo Cloud platform is a comprehensive solution for deploying and managing Dynamo inference graphs (also referred to as pipelines) in Kubernetes environments. It provides a streamlined experience for deploying, scaling, and monitoring your inference services. You can interface with Dynamo Cloud using the `deploy` subcommand available in the Dynamo CLI (for example, `dynamo deploy`)

## Overview

The Dynamo cloud platform consists of several key components:

- **Dynamo Operator**: A Kubernetes operator that manages the lifecycle of Dynamo inference graphs from build ➡️ deploy. For more information on the operator, see [Dynamo Kubernetes Operator Documentation](../dynamo_deploy/dynamo_operator.md)
- **API Store**: Stores and manages service configurations and metadata related to Dynamo deployments. Needs to be exposed externally.
- **Custom Resources**: Kubernetes custom resources for defining and managing Dynamo services

These components work together to provide a seamless deployment experience, handling everything from containerization to scaling and monitoring.

![Dynamo Deploy system deployment diagram.](../../images/dynamo-deploy.png)

## Prerequisites

Before getting started with the Dynamo cloud platform, ensure you have:

- A Kubernetes cluster (version 1.24 or later)
- [Earthly](https://earthly.dev/) installed for building components
- Docker installed and running
- Access to a container registry (e.g., Docker Hub, NVIDIA NGC, etc.)
- `kubectl` configured to access your cluster
- Helm installed (version 3.0 or later)

```{tip}
Don't have a Kubernetes cluster? Check out our [Minikube setup guide](./minikube.md) to set up a local environment!
```

## Building Docker Images for Dynamo Cloud Components

The Dynamo cloud platform components need to be built and pushed to a container registry before deployment. You can build these components individually or all at once.

### Setting Up Environment Variables

First, set the required environment variables for building and pushing images:

```bash
# Set your container registry
export DOCKER_SERVER=<CONTAINER_REGISTRY>
# Set the image tag (e.g., latest, 0.0.1, etc.)
export IMAGE_TAG=<TAG>
```

Where:
- `<CONTAINER_REGISTRY>`: Your container registry (e.g., `nvcr.io`, `docker.io/<your-username>`, etc.)
- `<TAG>`: The version tag for your images (e.g., `latest`, `0.0.1`, `v1.0.0`)

**Important** Make sure you're logged in to your container registry before pushing images. For example:

```bash
docker login <CONTAINER_REGISTRY>
```

### Building Components

You can build and push all platform components at once:

```bash
earthly --push +all-docker --DOCKER_SERVER=$DOCKER_SERVER --IMAGE_TAG=$IMAGE_TAG
```

## Deploying the Dynamo Cloud Platform

Once you've built and pushed the components, you can deploy the platform to your Kubernetes cluster.

### Prerequisites

Before deploying Dynamo Cloud, ensure your Kubernetes cluster meets the following requirements:

#### PVC Support with Default Storage Class
Dynamo Cloud requires Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) support with a default storage class. Verify your cluster configuration:

```bash
# Check if default storage class exists
kubectl get storageclass

# Expected output should show at least one storage class marked as (default)
# Example:
# NAME                 PROVISIONER             RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE      ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
# standard (default)   kubernetes.io/gce-pd    Delete          Immediate              true                   1d
```

### Cloud Provider-Specific deployment

#### Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) deployment

You can find detailed instructions for deployment in GKE [here](../dynamo_deploy/gke_setup.md)

### Installation

1. Set the required environment variables:
```bash
export DOCKER_USERNAME=<your-docker-username>
export DOCKER_PASSWORD=<your-docker-password>
export DOCKER_SERVER=<your-docker-server>
export IMAGE_TAG=<TAG>  # Use the same tag you used when building the images
export NAMESPACE=dynamo-cloud    # change this to whatever you want!
```

``` {note}
DOCKER_USERNAME and DOCKER_PASSWORD are optional and only needed if you want to pull docker images from a private registry.
A docker image pull secret is created automatically if these variables are set. Its name is `docker-imagepullsecret` unless overridden by the `DOCKER_SECRET_NAME` environment variable.
```

The Dynamo Cloud Platform auto-generates docker images for pipelines and pushes them to a container registry.
By default, the platform uses the same container registry as the platform components (specified by `DOCKER_SERVER`).
However, you can specify a different container registry for pipelines by additionally setting the following environment variables:

```bash
export PIPELINES_DOCKER_SERVER=<your-docker-server>
export PIPELINES_DOCKER_USERNAME=<your-docker-username>
export PIPELINES_DOCKER_PASSWORD=<your-docker-password>
```

If you wish to expose your Dynamo Cloud Platform externally, you can setup the following environment variables:

```bash
# if using ingress
export INGRESS_ENABLED="true"
export INGRESS_CLASS="nginx" # or whatever ingress class you have configured

# if using istio
export ISTIO_ENABLED="true"
export ISTIO_GATEWAY="istio-system/istio-ingressgateway" # or whatever istio gateway you have configured
```

Running the installation script with `--interactive` guides you through the process of exposing your Dynamo Cloud Platform externally if you don't want to set these environment variables manually.

2. [One-time Action] Create a new kubernetes namespace and set it as your default.

```bash
cd deploy/cloud/helm
kubectl create namespace $NAMESPACE
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=$NAMESPACE
```

3. Deploy the Helm charts (install CRDs first, then platform) using the deployment script:

```bash
./deploy.sh --crds
```

if you want guidance during the process, run the deployment script with the `--interactive` flag:

```bash
./deploy.sh --crds --interactive
```

omitting `--crds` will skip the CRDs installation/upgrade. This is useful when installing on a shared cluster as CRDs are cluster-scoped resources.

4. **Expose Dynamo Cloud Externally**

``` {note}
The script automatically displays information about the endpoint that you can use to access Dynamo Cloud. We refer to this externally available endpoint as `DYNAMO_CLOUD`.
```

The simplest way to expose the `dynamo-store` service within the namespace externally is to use a port-forward:

```bash
kubectl port-forward svc/dynamo-store <local-port>:80 -n $NAMESPACE
export DYNAMO_CLOUD=http://localhost:<local-port>
```

## Next Steps

After deploying the Dynamo cloud platform, you can:

1. Deploy your first inference graph using the [Dynamo CLI](operator_deployment.md)
2. Deploy Dynamo LLM pipelines to Kubernetes using the [Dynamo CLI](../../examples/llm_deployment.md)
3. Manage your deployments using the Dynamo CLI

For more detailed information about deploying inference graphs, see the [Dynamo Deploy Guide](README.md).