This guide demonstrates the Dynamo platform on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).
We will use those environment variables throughout this guide.
If you would like to use a different region, modify the AWS_REGION variable
export AWS_REGION="us-east-1"
export CLUSTER_NAME="ai-dynamo"
export DYNAMO_NAMESPACE="dynamo-system"
export DYNAMO_RELEASE_VERSION="1.0.0"Install AWS CLI (AWS CLI installation guide)
sudo apt install unzip
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/installInstall Kubernetes CLI (kubectl installation guide for EKS)
curl -O https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/amazon-eks/1.35.2/2026-02-27/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl
chmod +x ./kubectl
mkdir -p $HOME/bin && cp ./kubectl $HOME/bin/kubectl && export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH
echo 'export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrcInstall Eksctl CLI (eksctl installation guide)
ARCH=amd64
PLATFORM=$(uname -s)_$ARCH
curl -sLO "https://github.com/eksctl-io/eksctl/releases/latest/download/eksctl_$PLATFORM.tar.gz"
curl -sL "https://github.com/eksctl-io/eksctl/releases/latest/download/eksctl_checksums.txt" | grep $PLATFORM | sha256sum --check
tar -xzf eksctl_$PLATFORM.tar.gz -C /tmp && rm eksctl_$PLATFORM.tar.gz
sudo mv /tmp/eksctl /usr/local/binInstall Helm CLI (Helm setup for EKS)
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/master/scripts/get-helm-3 > get_helm.sh
chmod 700 get_helm.sh
./get_helm.shCreating an EKS Auto Mode cluster using Eksctl with eksctl.yaml.
This will create an EKS Auto Mode cluster with the Amazon EFS CSI Driver installed as an addon, we will later use Amazon EFS to store model weights and compilation to be used by Dynamo.
# Use all availability zones in a region, exclude use1-az3 where EKS control plane is not available
export EKS_CP_AZS=$(aws ec2 describe-availability-zones \
--region ${AWS_REGION} \
--filters "Name=opt-in-status,Values=opt-in-not-required" \
--query "AvailabilityZones[?ZoneId!='use1-az3'].[ZoneName]" \
--output text | sed 's/ /, /g; s/^/ - /')
eksctl create cluster -f <(envsubst < templates/eksctl.yaml)Note: eksctl will automatically configure kubeconfig context for you, if not you can run: aws eks update-kubeconfig --region $AWS_REGION --name $CLUSTER_NAME
Creating a GPU NodePool that targets the g5,g6,g6e,g7e,p5,p5e,p5en instance families.
kubectl apply -f automode-np-gpu.yamlCreate a default StorageClass to use the storage capability of EKS Auto Mode, this will make the default StorageClass to use EBS volumes for Stateful workloads needed by NATS that is used with Dynamo.
kubectl apply -f - << EOF
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
name: auto-ebs-sc
annotations:
storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: "true"
allowedTopologies:
- matchLabelExpressions:
- key: eks.amazonaws.com/compute-type
values:
- auto
provisioner: ebs.csi.eks.amazonaws.com
volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer
parameters:
type: gp3
encrypted: "true"
EOFFollow the EFS setup guide to create an EFS file system and make it available as shared storage for Dynamo workloads.
helm fetch https://helm.ngc.nvidia.com/nvidia/ai-dynamo/charts/dynamo-platform-"${DYNAMO_RELEASE_VERSION}".tgz
helm install dynamo-platform dynamo-platform-"${DYNAMO_RELEASE_VERSION}".tgz --namespace "${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE}" --create-namespaceexport HF_TOKEN=<HF_TOKEN>
kubectl create secret generic hf-token-secret \
--from-literal=HF_TOKEN=${HF_TOKEN} \
-n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE}Validate that the Dynamo platform pods are running, you should see an output similar to output below.
kubectl get pods -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE}
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
dynamo-platform-dynamo-operator-controller-manager-ff54b5dstgcq 1/1 Running 0 106s
dynamo-platform-nats-0 2/2 Running 0 106sValidate that the Dynamo CRDs were installed
kubectl get crds | grep dynamo
dynamocheckpoints.nvidia.com 2026-03-17T13:18:05Z
dynamocomponentdeployments.nvidia.com 2026-03-17T13:18:06Z
dynamographdeploymentrequests.nvidia.com 2026-03-17T13:18:08Z
dynamographdeployments.nvidia.com 2026-03-17T13:18:09Z
dynamographdeploymentscalingadapters.nvidia.com 2026-03-17T13:18:10Z
dynamomodels.nvidia.com 2026-03-17T13:18:10Z
dynamoworkermetadatas.nvidia.com 2026-03-17T13:18:11Z| Manifest | Description |
|---|---|
manifests/vllm/disagg.yaml |
Disaggregated prefill/decode DGD using NIXL with LIBFABRIC backend over EFA. Targets g7e.12xlarge instances with GPUDirect RDMA support for high-throughput KV-cache transfer between prefill and decode workers. |
manifests/vllm/disagg-p5.yaml |
Disaggregated prefill/decode DGD using NIXL with LIBFABRIC backend over EFA. Targets p5.48xlarge reserved instances with 8 EFA devices (4 EFAs per 1 GPU for p5.48xlarge) and TP-2 for Qwen3-32B. Uses 2 decode and 6 prefill replicas on reserved capacity (karpenter.sh/capacity-type: reserved). |
manifests/vllm/disagg-tcp.yaml |
Alternative disaggregated prefill/decode inference graph using TCP instead of EFA. Targets g6e.2xlarge instances, suitable for instance types without EFA support. |
manifests/vllm/agg.yaml |
Aggregated (single-worker) inference graph where a single vLLM worker handles both prefill and decode phases. Simpler deployment without KV-cache transfer overhead. |
Before deploying an inference graph, download the model weights onto the shared EFS file system. Each Dynamo recipe includes a model-cache/model-download.yaml Job manifest that downloads the model from HuggingFace.
Copy the recipe's download manifest into the local kustomize directory and apply it:
# Example: cache the Qwen3-32B model which we will be using later
cp ../../../recipes/qwen3-32b/model-cache/model-download.yaml manifests/model-download/model-download.yaml
kubectl kustomize manifests/model-download | kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} apply -f -
rm -f manifests/model-download/model-download.yamlThe recipe manifests don't set any memory resources on the download container. Without a memory request, the Job pod can get OOMKilled during download — especially for large models. The kustomization.yaml in manifests/model-download/ patches in a memory request to prevent this. By default it adds 4Gi.
For larger models (e.g. DeepSeek-R1, Nemotron-3-Super-120B) increase this value in manifests/model-download/kustomization.yaml before applying:
patches:
- target:
kind: Job
name: model-download
patch: |
apiVersion: batch/v1
kind: Job
metadata:
name: model-download
spec:
template:
spec:
containers:
- name: model-download
resources:
requests:
memory: "16Gi" # increase for larger modelsThen apply:
kubectl kustomize manifests/model-download | kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} apply -f -Monitor the download Job:
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} get jobs model-download
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} logs -f job/model-downloadTo re-run a download (e.g. after changing the model or fixing an OOM), delete the previous Job first:
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} delete job model-downloadThen copy the new recipe's manifest and apply again.
This example deploys a disaggregated prefill/decode Dynamo Inference Graph that uses NIXL with the LIBFABRIC backend using Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) for high-throughput KV-cache transfer between workers.
It targets g7e.12xlarge instances, which support GPUDirect RDMA, and uses the Dynamo EFA-enabled vLLM container nvcr.io/nvidia/ai-dynamo/vllm-runtime:1.1.0-efa-amd64 that ships with the EFA Installer pre-installed.
Note: For a full list of EFA-supported instance types, see the AWS EC2 Docs.
nodeSelector:
node.kubernetes.io/instance-type: g7e.12xlargeKV-cache transfer between workers uses NIXL with the LIBFABRIC backend. Enable it by passing the following argument to vLLM:
--kv-transfer-config '{"kv_connector":"NixlConnector","kv_role":"kv_both","kv_connector_extra_config": {"backends": ["LIBFABRIC"]}}'
Note: On instance types without EFA support, NIXL's libfabric backend falls back to TCP automatically. However, vLLM's NixlConnector defaults to cuda as the buffer device, so you must add "kv_buffer_device":"cpu" to the kv-transfer-config argument for disaggregated serving to work without EFA.
Request an EFA device for each worker pod using the vpc.amazonaws.com/efa extended resource:
resources:
requests:
gpu: "1"
custom:
vpc.amazonaws.com/efa: "1"
limits:
gpu: "1"
custom:
vpc.amazonaws.com/efa: "1"Note: EKS Auto Mode includes the EFA device plugin making vpc.amazonaws.com/efa extended resource available.
All workers (prefill and decode) must be co-located in the same availability zone, since EFA traffic does not cross AZ boundaries. Use a pod affinity rule to enforce this:
affinity:
podAffinity:
requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
- topologyKey: "topology.kubernetes.io/zone"
labelSelector:
matchLabels:
nvidia.com/dynamo-graph-deployment-name: "vllm-disagg"kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} apply -f manifests/vllm/disagg.yamlNote: manifests/vllm/disagg-tcp.yaml provides an alternative example that uses TCP instead of EFA, targeting g6e.2xlarge instances.
Verify that all pods reach Running status:
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} get pods
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
dynamo-platform-dynamo-operator-controller-manager-ff54b5dstgcq 1/1 Running 0 39m
dynamo-platform-nats-0 2/2 Running 0 39m
vllm-disagg-frontend-85f8476887-wwtwk 1/1 Running 0 2m13s
vllm-disagg-vllmdecodeworker-510a1741-7666987b-tp58w 1/1 Running 0 2m13s
vllm-disagg-vllmprefillworker-510a1741-54f76d7954-tjgn8 1/1 Running 0 2m13skubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} port-forward svc/vllm-disagg-frontend 8000:8000
curl localhost:8000/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "Qwen/Qwen3-32B",
"messages": [
{
"role": "user",
"content": "In the heart of Eldoria, an ancient land of boundless magic and mysterious creatures, lies the long-forgotten city of Aeloria. Once a beacon of knowledge and power, Aeloria was buried beneath the shifting sands of time, lost to the world for centuries. You are an intrepid explorer, known for your unparalleled curiosity and courage, who has stumbled upon an ancient map hinting at ests that Aeloria holds a secret so profound that it has the potential to reshape the very fabric of reality. Your journey will take you through treacherous deserts, enchanted forests, and across perilous mountain ranges. Your Task: Character Background: Develop a detailed background for your character. Describe their motivations for seeking out Aeloria, their skills and weaknesses, and any personal connections to the ancient city or its legends. Are they driven by a quest for knowledge, a search for lost familt clue is hidden."
}
],
"stream": false,
"max_tokens": 30
}'You should see output similar to below
{"id":"chatcmpl-23a7c94b-99cb-42ca-ae56-2397aa5a560f","choices":[{"index":0,"message":{"content":"<think>\nOkay, so I need to develop a character background for someone who's an intrepid explorer in Eldoria, specifically focusing on their motivations,","role":"assistant","reasoning_content":null},"finish_reason":"length"}],"created":1773336002,"model":"Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B","object":"chat.completion","usage":{"prompt_tokens":196,"completion_tokens":30,"total_tokens":226,"prompt_tokens_details":{"audio_tokens":null,"cached_tokens":192}},"nvext":{"worker_id":{"prefill_worker_id":4265733549773195,"prefill_dp_rank":0,"decode_worker_id":7535192362430132,"decode_dp_rank":0},"timing":{"request_received_ms":1773336002136,"prefill_wait_time_ms":0.852483,"prefill_time_ms":12.90597,"ttft_ms":13.758453000000001,"total_time_ms":110.89621500000001,"kv_hit_rate":0.0}}}Note: The initial request for each worker will occur increased latency, this is due to the NIXL backend handshake and initialization overhead, this operation is only for the very first transfer
Watch logs
kubectl logs -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} -l nvidia.com/dynamo-graph-deployment-name=vllm-disagg --all-containers=true --max-log-requests=20 --prefix=true --timestamps -fCleanup
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} delete -f manifests/vllm/disagg.yamlkubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} apply -f manifests/vllm/agg.yamlYour pods should be running like below output, making sure they are in status "Running".
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} get pods
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
dynamo-platform-dynamo-operator-controller-manager-ff54b5dstgcq 1/1 Running 0 12m
dynamo-platform-nats-0 2/2 Running 0 12m
vllm-agg-frontend-ff8457bcf-tq9jh 1/1 Running 0 4m46s
vllm-agg-vllmdecodeworker-d0a70291-759df94478-8lc74 1/1 Running 0 4m46sWatch logs
kubectl logs -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} -l nvidia.com/dynamo-graph-deployment-name=vllm-agg --all-containers=true --max-log-requests=20 --prefix=true --timestamps -fkubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} port-forward svc/vllm-agg-frontend 8000:8000
curl localhost:8000/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B",
"messages": [
{
"role": "user",
"content": "In the heart of Eldoria, an ancient land of boundless magic and mysterious creatures, lies the long-forgotten city of Aeloria. Once a beacon of knowledge and power, Aeloria was buried beneath the shifting sands of time, lost to the world for centuries. You are an intrepid explorer, known for your unparalleled curiosity and courage, who has stumbled upon an ancient map hinting at ests that Aeloria holds a secret so profound that it has the potential to reshape the very fabric of reality. Your journey will take you through treacherous deserts, enchanted forests, and across perilous mountain ranges. Your Task: Character Background: Develop a detailed background for your character. Describe their motivations for seeking out Aeloria, their skills and weaknesses, and any personal connections to the ancient city or its legends. Are they driven by a quest for knowledge, a search for lost familt clue is hidden."
}
],
"stream": false,
"max_tokens": 30
}'You should see output similar to below
{"id":"chatcmpl-093fac0e-f75e-43b5-90dc-96c8c77a2e7c","choices":[{"index":0,"message":{"content":"<think>\nOkay, I need to develop a character background for the explorer in Eldoria. Let me start by understanding the user's query. They mentioned","role":"assistant","reasoning_content":null},"finish_reason":"length"}],"created":1773443560,"model":"Qwen/Qwen3-0.6B","object":"chat.completion","usage":{"prompt_tokens":196,"completion_tokens":30,"total_tokens":226},"nvext":{"timing":{"request_received_ms":1773443560878,"total_time_ms":99.89782}}}%Cleanup
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} delete -f manifests/vllm/agg.yamlGPU instances can be difficult to acquire on-demand. AWS provides two reservation mechanisms to guarantee capacity for ML workloads:
- On-Demand Capacity Reservations (ODCRs) reserve capacity in a specific AZ for any duration. You pay for the reserved capacity whether or not you use it.
- Capacity Blocks for ML reserve GPU instances for a fixed time window (hours to days). Instances are placed in EC2 UltraClusters for low-latency networking. Capacity Blocks have a defined end time, and EC2 will terminate instances before the block expires.
EKS Auto Mode uses Karpenter under the hood, which models reserved capacity as karpenter.sh/capacity-type: reserved and prioritizes it over on-demand and spot.
Note: By default, EKS Auto Mode can launch into open ODCRs automatically, but does not prioritize them. Capacity Blocks are never used automatically. Both require explicit
capacityReservationSelectorTermsconfiguration on a NodeClass to be prioritized and labeled asreserved.
Create a NodeClass that references your ODCR or Capacity Block reservation. You can select by reservation ID or by tags.
First, extract the subnet, security group, and role configuration from the default NodeClass that EKS Auto Mode already created:
export NC_SUBNETS=$(kubectl get nodeclass default -o json | jq -c '.spec.subnetSelectorTerms')
export NC_SG=$(kubectl get nodeclass default -o json | jq -c '.spec.securityGroupSelectorTerms')
export NC_ROLE=$(kubectl get nodeclass default -o json | jq -r '.spec.role')Replace <CR ID> with your actual reservation ID from the EC2 console.
export CR_ID=<CR ID>
kubectl apply -f - << EOF
apiVersion: eks.amazonaws.com/v1
kind: NodeClass
metadata:
name: gpu-reserved
spec:
role: ${NC_ROLE}
subnetSelectorTerms: ${NC_SUBNETS}
securityGroupSelectorTerms: ${NC_SG}
capacityReservationSelectorTerms:
# Select by reservation ID (ODCR or Capacity Block)
- id: "${CR_ID}"
# Or select by tags (can be combined)
# - tags:
# team: "dynamo"
EOFWait until the status of the capacityReservation state is active.
kubectl get nodeclass gpu-reserved -o json | jq '.status.capacityReservations'
[
{
"availabilityZone": "us-east-2c",
"endTime": "2026-03-18T11:30:00Z",
"id": "cr-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
"instanceMatchCriteria": "targeted",
"instanceType": "p5.48xlarge",
"ownerID": "xxxxxxxxxxx",
"reservationType": "capacity-block",
"state": "active"
}
]Create a NodePool that references the gpu-reserved NodeClass and uses the reserved capacity type. You can optionally include on-demand and spot as a fallback when the reservation is exhausted.
kubectl apply -f - << EOF
apiVersion: karpenter.sh/v1
kind: NodePool
metadata:
name: gpu-reserved
spec:
disruption:
budgets:
- nodes: 10%
consolidateAfter: 300s
consolidationPolicy: WhenEmptyOrUnderutilized
template:
spec:
nodeClassRef:
group: eks.amazonaws.com
kind: NodeClass
name: gpu-reserved
requirements:
- key: karpenter.sh/capacity-type
operator: In
values:
- reserved
# Uncomment to fallback to on-demand or spot when reservation is exhausted
# - on-demand
# - spot
- key: eks.amazonaws.com/instance-family
operator: In
values:
- g6e
- g7e
- p5
- p5e
- p5en
taints:
- effect: NoSchedule
key: nvidia.com/gpu
value: Exists
EOFValidate that the gpu-reserved NodePool is ready
kubectl get nodepool gpu-reserved
NAME NODECLASS NODES READY AGE
gpu-reserved gpu-reserved 0 True 8sNote: When configuring
capacityReservationSelectorTermson any NodeClass in the cluster, EKS Auto Mode will stop automatically using open ODCRs for all NodeClasses. Make sure all NodeClasses that should use ODCRs have explicit selector terms configured.
Pods are scheduled onto reserved nodes through the existing NodePool requirements and taints. If you want to ensure a workload only runs on reserved capacity, add a node selector:
nodeSelector:
karpenter.sh/capacity-type: reserved
tolerations:
- key: nvidia.com/gpu
operator: Exists
effect: NoScheduleCapacity Blocks have a fixed end time. EC2 begins terminating instances 30 minutes before the block expires (60 minutes for UltraServer types). Karpenter will start draining nodes 10 minutes before EC2 termination begins, giving your workloads time to gracefully shut down.
Plan your inference workloads accordingly, and consider using on-demand as a fallback capacity type in the NodePool if you need continuity beyond the Capacity Block window.
Delete all DynamoGraphDeployment
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} get dgd
# If you have any, delete them
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} delete dgd <name>Uninstall Dynamo platform
helm uninstall -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} dynamo-platformClean leftover PVCs related to NATS
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} get pvc
NAME STATUS VOLUME CAPACITY ACCESS MODES STORAGECLASS VOLUMEATTRIBUTESCLASS AGE
dynamo-platform-nats-js-dynamo-platform-nats-0 Bound pvc-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx 10Gi RWO auto-ebs-sc <unset> 75m
kubectl -n ${DYNAMO_NAMESPACE} delete pvc dynamo-platform-nats-js-dynamo-platform-nats-0Delete the AutoMode GPU nodepool
kubectl delete nodepool gpuCleanup EFS related resources, follow the EFS setup guide cleanup section
Delete the EKS Auto Mode cluster using Eksctl
eksctl delete cluster -f <(envsubst < templates/eksctl.yaml)