Host Device

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Use Case

Direct passthrough to host network devices, with no virtualization layer. Each pod gets exclusive access to a physical NIC. Minimal CPU overhead — best for legacy HPC codes, specialized protocols, and DPDK applications. Works with both Ethernet and InfiniBand fabrics.

Prerequisites

  • Network Operator Helm chart installed (see Installation).

  • l8k binary on your PATH.

  • One or more Mellanox NICs per node not used by the host.

Discover

l8k discover --kubeconfig ~/.kube/config \
    --save-cluster-config ./cluster-config.yaml

Generate

l8k generate --user-config ./cluster-config.yaml \
    --deployment-type host_device --multirail \
    --save-deployment-files ./deployments

Add --fabric ethernet or --fabric infiniband if you need to constrain the fabric explicitly.

Deploy

l8k deploy

Verify

kubectl -n nvidia-network-operator get pods
kubectl get hostdevicenetwork

See Also