node-feature-discovery/README.md

# Node feature discovery for [Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io)

[![Build Status](https://api.travis-ci.org/kubernetes-incubator/node-feature-discovery.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.com/kubernetes-incubator/node-feature-discovery)

- [Overview](#overview)
- [Command line interface](#command-line-interface)
- [Feature discovery](#feature-discovery)
  - [Feature sources](#feature-sources)
  - [Feature labels](#feature-labels)
- [Getting started](#getting-started)
  - [System requirements](#system-requirements)
  - [Usage](#usage)
- [Building from source](#building-from-source)
- [Targeting nodes with specific features](#targeting-nodes-with-specific-features)
- [References](#references)
- [License](#license)
- [Demo](#demo)

_**NOTE:** We are gathering evidence in order to graduate from the Kubernetes incubator. If you are a user of the project, please add yourself to [this list](https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/node-feature-discovery/wiki/Users) with as much detail as you are comfortable providing (name and email optional)._

## Overview

This software enables node feature discovery for Kubernetes. It detects
hardware features available on each node in a Kubernetes cluster, and advertises
those features using node labels.

## Command line interface

```
node-feature-discovery.

  Usage:
  node-feature-discovery [--no-publish --sources=<sources> --label-whitelist=<pattern>]
  node-feature-discovery -h | --help
  node-feature-discovery --version

  Options:
  -h --help                   Show this screen.
  --version                   Output version and exit.
  --sources=<sources>         Comma separated list of feature sources.
                              [Default: cpuid,rdt,pstate]
  --no-publish                Do not publish discovered features to the
                              cluster-local Kubernetes API server.
  --label-whitelist=<pattern> Regular expression to filter label names to
                              publish to the Kubernetes API server. [Default: ]
```

## Feature discovery

### Feature sources

The current set of feature sources are the following:

- [CPUID][cpuid] for x86 CPU details
- [Intel Resource Director Technology][intel-rdt]
- [Intel P-State driver][intel-pstate]

### Feature labels

The published node labels encode a few pieces of information:

- A "namespace" (e.g. `node.alpha.kubernetes-incubator.io/nfd`).
- The version of this discovery code that wrote the label, according to
  `git describe --tags --dirty --always`.
- The source for each label (e.g. `cpuid`).
- The name of the discovered feature as it appears in the underlying
  source, (e.g. `AESNI` from cpuid).

_Note: only features that are available on a given node are labeled, so
the only label value published for features is the string `"true"`._

```json
{
  "node.alpha.kubernetes-incubator.io/node-feature-discovery.version": "v0.1.0",
  "node.alpha.kubernetes-incubator.io/nfd-cpuid-<feature-name>": "true",
  "node.alpha.kubernetes-incubator.io/nfd-rdt-<feature-name>": "true",
  "node.alpha.kubernetes-incubator.io/nfd-pstate-<feature-name>": "true"
}
```

The `--sources` flag controls which sources to use for discovery.

_Note: Consecutive runs of node-feature-discovery will update the labels on a
given node. If features are not discovered on a consecutive run, the corresponding
label will be removed. This includes any restrictions placed on the consecutive run,
such as restricting discovered features with the --label-whitelist option._

### Intel Resource Director Technology (RDT) Features

| Feature name   | Description                                                                         |
| :------------: | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------: |
| RDTMON         | Intel Cache Monitoring Technology (CMT) and Intel Memory Bandwidth Monitoring (MBM)
| RDTL3CA        | Intel L3 Cache Allocation Technology
| RDTL2CA        | Intel L2 Cache Allocation Technology

### CPUID Features (Partial List)

| Feature name   | Description                                                  |
| :------------: | :----------------------------------------------------------: |
| ADX            | Multi-Precision Add-Carry Instruction Extensions (ADX)
| AESNI          | Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) New Instructions (AES-NI)
| AVX            | Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX)
| AVX2           | Advanced Vector Extensions 2 (AVX2)
| BMI1           | Bit Manipulation Instruction Set 1 (BMI)
| BMI2           | Bit Manipulation Instruction Set 2 (BMI2)
| SSE4.1         | Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.1 (SSE4.1)
| SSE4.2         | Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.2 (SSE4.2)
| SGX            | Software Guard Extensions (SGX)

## Getting started
### System requirements

1. Linux (x86_64)
1. [kubectl] [kubectl-setup] (properly set up and configured to work with your
   Kubernetes cluster)
1. [Docker] [docker-down] (only required to build and push docker images)

### Usage

Feature discovery is done as a one-shot job. There is an example script in this
repo that demonstrates how to deploy the job to unlabeled nodes.

```
./label-nodes.sh
```

The discovery script will launch a job on each each unlabeled node in the
cluster. When the job runs, it contacts the Kubernetes API server to add labels
to the node to advertise hardware features (initially, from `cpuid`, RDT and p-state).

[![asciicast](https://asciinema.org/a/11wir751y89617oemwnsgli4a.png)](https://asciinema.org/a/11wir751y89617oemwnsgli4a)

## Building from source

Download the source code.

```
git clone https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/node-feature-discovery
```

**Build the Docker image:**

```
cd <project-root>
make
```

**NOTE: Our default docker image is hosted in quay.io. To override the 
`QUAY_REGISTRY_USER` use the `-e` option as follows: 
`QUAY_REGISTRY_USER=<my-username> make docker -e`**

Push the Docker Image (optional)

```
docker push <quay-domain-name>/<registry-user>/<image-name>:<version>
```

**Change the job spec to use your custom image (optional):**

To use your published image from the step above instead of the
`quay.io/kubernetes_incubator/node-feature-discovery` image, edit line 40 in the file
[node-feature-discovery-job.json.template](node-feature-discovery-job.json.template)
to the new location (`<quay-domain-name>/<registry-user>/<image-name>[:<version>]`).

## Targeting Nodes with Specific Features

Nodes with specific features can be targeted using the `nodeSelector` field. The
following example shows how to target nodes with Intel TurboBoost enabled.

```json
{
    "apiVersion": "v1",
    "kind": "Pod",
    "metadata": {
        "labels": {
            "env": "test"
        },
        "name": "golang-test"
    },
    "spec": {
        "containers": [
            {
                "image": "golang",
                "name": "go1",
            }
        ],
        "nodeSelector": {
                "node.alpha.kubernetes-incubator.io/nfd-pstate-turbo": "true"
        }
    }
}
```

For more details on targeting nodes, see [node selection][node-sel].

## References

Github issues

- [#28310](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/28310)
- [#28311](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/28311)
- [#28312](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/28312)

[Design proposal](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uulT2AjqXjc_pLtDu0Kw9WyvvXm-WAZZaSiUziKsr68/edit)

## Kubernetes Incubator

This is a [Kubernetes Incubator project](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/incubator.md). The project was established 2016-08-29. The incubator team for the project is:

- Sponsor: Dawn Chen (@dchen1107)
- Champion: David Oppenheimer (@davidopp)
- SIG: sig-node

## License

This is open source software released under the [Apache 2.0 License](LICENSE).

## Demo

A demo on the benefits of using node feature discovery can be found in [demo](demo/). 

<!-- Links -->
[cpuid]: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man4/cpuid.4.html
[intel-rdt]: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/resource-director-technology.html
[intel-pstate]: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/cpu-freq/intel-pstate.txt
[docker-down]: https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation
[golang-down]: https://golang.org/dl
[gcc-down]: https://gcc.gnu.org
[kubectl-setup]: https://coreos.com/kubernetes/docs/latest/configure-kubectl.html
[node-sel]: http://kubernetes.io/docs/user-guide/node-selection