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docs: Replace Grove and K8s metrics with fixes-docs versions
Updated to the more accurate and product-specific versions from fixes-docs:

**Grove Documentation:**
- Changed from generic Kubernetes scheduling guide to AI-focused deployment guide
- Now covers disaggregated inference orchestration specifically
- Includes integration details with NVIDIA Dynamo
- Mentions specific models like DeepSeek-R1 and Llama-4-Maverick
- Added reference to Grove installation guide
- Covers PodGangSet, PodClique, and PodCliqueScalingGroup for AI workloads

**K8s Metrics Documentation:**
- Changed from generic Prometheus/Grafana setup to Dynamo operator-integrated approach
- Uses PodMonitor instead of ServiceMonitor for better automation
- Leverages Dynamo operator's automatic labeling system
- Includes hands-on workflow starting with DynamoGraphDeployment
- Component-specific monitoring for frontend/worker/planner

Both versions are now much more technically accurate and practically useful for Dynamo users.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.ai/code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude <[email protected]>
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athreesh and claude committed Aug 19, 2025
commit b29caf34dfb623a6e72b1cfd026ba77bec22eacf
249 changes: 87 additions & 162 deletions docs/guides/dynamo_deploy/grove.md
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# Grove: Advanced Kubernetes Scheduling
# Grove Deployment Guide

Grove is an advanced Kubernetes scheduler and batch workload manager built on top of the Dynamo Kubernetes Platform. It enables sophisticated scheduling policies for multi-node GPU workloads, with special support for large-scale LLM inference deployments.
Grove is a Kubernetes API specifically designed to address the orchestration challenges of modern AI workloads, particularly disaggregated inference systems. Grove provides seamless integration with NVIDIA Dynamo for comprehensive AI infrastructure management.

## Overview

Grove extends Kubernetes' default scheduling capabilities with:
- **Gang scheduling**: Ensures all pods in a workload start together or not at all
- **Topology-aware placement**: Optimizes pod placement based on network topology
- **Resource-aware scheduling**: Makes intelligent decisions based on GPU memory, compute capacity, and network bandwidth
- **Priority-based queueing**: Manages workload priorities and preemption policies
Grove was originally motivated by the challenges of orchestrating multinode, disaggregated inference systems. It provides a consistent and unified API that allows users to define, configure, and scale prefill, decode, and any other components like routing within a single custom resource.

## Key Features
### How Grove Works for Disaggregated Serving

Grove enables disaggregated serving by breaking down large language model inference into separate, specialized components that can be independently scaled and managed. This architecture provides several advantages:

- **Component Specialization**: Separate prefill, decode, and routing components optimized for their specific tasks
- **Independent Scaling**: Each component can scale based on its individual resource requirements and workload patterns
- **Resource Optimization**: Better utilization of hardware resources through specialized workload placement
- **Fault Isolation**: Issues in one component don't necessarily affect others

## Core Components and API Resources

Grove implements disaggregated serving through several custom Kubernetes resources that provide declarative composition of role-based pod groups:

### PodGangSet
PodGangSet is Grove's primary scheduling primitive that groups related pods that must be scheduled together.

```yaml
apiVersion: grove.dynamo.ai/v1
kind: PodGangSet
metadata:
name: llm-inference-gang
namespace: default
spec:
template:
spec:
containers:
- name: worker
image: dynamo/worker:latest
resources:
requests:
nvidia.com/gpu: 1
replicas: 8
minAvailable: 8 # All pods must be schedulable
scheduling:
nodeAffinity:
requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
nodeSelectorTerms:
- matchExpressions:
- key: node-type
operator: In
values: ["gpu-compute"]
```
The top-level Grove object that defines a group of components managed and colocated together. Key features include:
- Support for autoscaling
- Topology-aware spread of replicas for availability
- Unified management of multiple disaggregated components

### PodClique
PodClique provides fine-grained control over pod co-location and anti-affinity rules within a gang.

```yaml
apiVersion: grove.dynamo.ai/v1
kind: PodClique
metadata:
name: prefill-decode-clique
spec:
selector:
matchLabels:
app: dynamo-worker
topology:
# Prefer pods to be co-located on the same rack
preferredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
- weight: 100
podAffinityTerm:
labelSelector:
matchLabels:
component: prefill
topologyKey: topology.kubernetes.io/rack
```

## Deployment

### Prerequisites
- Kubernetes cluster with GPU nodes
- NVIDIA GPU Operator installed
- Node topology labels configured

### Install Grove Scheduler

```bash
# Install Grove CRDs and scheduler
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/ai-dynamo/grove/releases/latest/download/grove-crds.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/ai-dynamo/grove/releases/latest/download/grove-scheduler.yaml
```

### Configure Node Topology

Label your nodes with topology information:

```bash
# Label nodes with rack information
kubectl label node gpu-node-01 topology.kubernetes.io/rack=rack-1
kubectl label node gpu-node-02 topology.kubernetes.io/rack=rack-1
kubectl label node gpu-node-03 topology.kubernetes.io/rack=rack-2

# Label nodes with GPU types
kubectl label node gpu-node-01 accelerator=h100
kubectl label node gpu-node-02 accelerator=h100
kubectl label node gpu-node-03 accelerator=a100
```

## Integration with Dynamo

Grove integrates seamlessly with Dynamo's disaggregated serving architecture:

### Multi-Node Prefill/Decode Scheduling

```yaml
apiVersion: grove.dynamo.ai/v1
kind: PodGangSet
metadata:
name: dynamo-multinode-serving
spec:
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: dynamo-worker
spec:
schedulerName: grove-scheduler
containers:
- name: dynamo-worker
image: nvcr.io/nvidia/ai-dynamo/sglang-runtime:latest
env:
- name: WORKER_TYPE
value: "prefill" # or "decode"
replicas: 16
minAvailable: 16
scheduling:
# Ensure all workers can communicate efficiently
nodeAffinity:
requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
nodeSelectorTerms:
- matchExpressions:
- key: network-tier
operator: In
values: ["high-bandwidth"]
```

## Best Practices

### Resource Planning
- Use `minAvailable: replicas` for strict gang scheduling
- Set appropriate resource requests and limits
- Consider network bandwidth requirements for multi-node workloads

### Topology Awareness
- Label nodes with rack, zone, and network topology information
- Use PodClique for fine-grained placement control
- Test different affinity rules to optimize for your workload

### Monitoring
Grove provides metrics for scheduling decisions:

```bash
# View Grove scheduler metrics
kubectl port-forward -n grove-system svc/grove-scheduler-metrics 8080:8080
curl localhost:8080/metrics | grep grove_
```

## Troubleshooting

### Common Issues

**Pods stuck in Pending state:**
- Check if sufficient resources are available across required nodes
- Verify node labels match gang affinity requirements
- Review Grove scheduler logs: `kubectl logs -n grove-system deployment/grove-scheduler`

**Gang scheduling not working:**
- Ensure `schedulerName: grove-scheduler` is set in pod specs
- Verify PodGangSet controller is running
- Check for resource conflicts with other scheduled workloads

For more detailed troubleshooting, see the [Grove Documentation](https://grove.dynamo.ai/docs).
Represents a group of pods with a specific role (e.g., leader, worker, frontend). Each clique features:
- Independent configuration options
- Custom scaling logic support
- Role-specific resource allocation

### PodCliqueScalingGroup
A set of PodCliques that scale and are scheduled together, ideal for tightly coupled roles like prefill leader and worker components that need coordinated scaling behavior.

## Key Capabilities for Disaggregated Serving

Grove provides several specialized features that make it particularly well-suited for disaggregated serving:

### Flexible Gang Scheduling
PodCliques and PodCliqueScalingGroups allow users to specify flexible gang-scheduling requirements at multiple levels within a PodGangSet to prevent resource deadlocks and ensure all components of a disaggregated system start together.

### Multi-level Horizontal Auto-Scaling
Supports pluggable horizontal auto-scaling solutions to scale PodGangSet, PodClique, and PodCliqueScalingGroup custom resources independently based on their specific metrics and requirements.

### Network Topology-Aware Scheduling
Allows specifying network topology pack and spread constraints to optimize for both network performance and service availability, crucial for disaggregated systems where components need efficient inter-node communication.

### Custom Startup Dependencies
Prescribes the order in which PodCliques must start in a declarative specification, with pod startup decoupled from pod creation or scheduling. This ensures proper initialization order for disaggregated components.

## Use Cases and Examples

Grove specifically supports:

- **Multi-node disaggregated inference** for large models such as DeepSeek-R1 and Llama-4-Maverick
- **Single-node disaggregated inference** for optimized resource utilization
- **Agentic pipelines of models** for complex AI workflows
- **Standard aggregated serving** patterns for single node or single GPU inference

## Integration with NVIDIA Dynamo

Grove is strategically aligned with NVIDIA Dynamo for seamless integration within the AI infrastructure stack:

### Complementary Roles
- **Grove**: Handles the Kubernetes orchestration layer for disaggregated AI workloads
- **Dynamo**: Provides comprehensive AI infrastructure capabilities including serving backends, routing, and resource management

### Release Coordination
Grove is aligning its release schedule with NVIDIA Dynamo to ensure seamless integration, with the finalized release cadence reflected in the project roadmap.

### Unified AI Platform
The integration creates a comprehensive platform where:
- Grove manages complex orchestration of disaggregated components
- Dynamo provides the serving infrastructure, routing capabilities, and backend integrations
- Together they enable sophisticated AI serving architectures with simplified management

## Architecture Benefits

Grove represents a significant advancement in Kubernetes-based orchestration for AI workloads by:

1. **Simplifying Complex Deployments**: Provides a unified API that can manage multiple components (prefill, decode, routing) within a single resource definition
2. **Enabling Sophisticated Architectures**: Supports advanced disaggregated inference patterns that were previously difficult to orchestrate
3. **Reducing Operational Complexity**: Abstracts away the complexity of coordinating multiple interdependent AI components
4. **Optimizing Resource Utilization**: Enables fine-grained control over component placement and scaling

## Getting Started

> **Note**: Grove is currently in development and aligning with NVIDIA Dynamo's release schedule.

For installation instructions, see the [Grove Installation Guide](https://github.com/NVIDIA/grove/blob/main/docs/installation.md).

For practical examples of Grove-based multinode deployments in action, see the [Multinode Deployment Guide](multinode-deployment.md), which demonstrates multi-node disaggregated serving scenarios.

For the latest updates on Grove, refer to the [official project on GitHub](https://github.com/NVIDIA/grove).
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