Gang scheduling, queue priority, and GPU sharing for RayClusters using KAI Scheduler#

This guide demonstrates how to use KAI Scheduler for setting up hierarchical queues with quotas, gang scheduling, and GPU sharing using RayClusters.

KAI Scheduler#

KAI Scheduler is a high-performance, scalable Kubernetes scheduler built for AI/ML workloads. Designed to orchestrate GPU clusters at massive scale, KAI optimizes GPU allocation and supports the full AI lifecycle - from interactive development to large distributed training and inference. Some of the key features are:

Bin packing and spread scheduling: Optimize node usage either by minimizing fragmentation (bin packing) or increasing resiliency and load balancing (spread scheduling)
GPU sharing: Allow KAI to pack multiple Ray workloads from across teams on the same GPU, letting your organization fit more work onto your existing hardware and reducing idle GPU time.
Workload autoscaling: Scale Ray replicas or workers within min/max while respecting gang constraints
Cluster autoscaling: Compatible with dynamic cloud infrastructures (including auto-scalers like Karpenter)
Workload priorities: Prioritize Ray workloads effectively within queues
Hierarchical queues and fairness: Two-level queues with quotas, over-quota weights, limits, and equitable resource distribution between queues using DRF and many more. For more details and key features, see the documentation.

Core components#

PodGroups: PodGroups are atomic units for scheduling and represent one or more interdependent pods that the scheduler execute as a single unit, also known as gang scheduling. They are vital for distributed workloads. KAI Scheduler includes a PodGrouper that handles gang scheduling automatically.

How PodGrouper works:

RayCluster "distributed-training":
├── Head Pod: 1 GPU
└── Worker Group: 4 × 0.5 GPU = 2 GPUs
Total Group Requirement: 3 GPUs

PodGrouper schedules all 5 pods (1 head + 4 workers) together or none at all.

Queues: Queues enforce fairness in resource distribution using:

Quota: The baseline amount of resources guaranteed to the queue. The scheduler allocates quotas first to ensure fairness.
Queue priority: Determines the order in which queues receive resources beyond their quota. The scheduler serves the higher-priority queues first.
Over-quota weight: Controls how the scheduler divides surplus resources among queues within the same priority level. Queues with higher weights receive a larger share of the extra resources.
Limit: Defines the maximum resources that the queue can consume.

You can arrange queues hierarchically for organizations with multiple teams, for example, departments with multiple teams.

Prerequisites #

Kubernetes cluster with GPU nodes
NVIDIA GPU Operator
kubectl configured to access your cluster

Step 1: Install KAI Scheduler#

Install KAI Scheduler with gpu-sharing enabled. Choose the desired release version from KAI Scheduler releases and replace the <KAI_SCHEDULER_VERSION> in the following command.

# Install KAI Scheduler
helm upgrade -i kai-scheduler oci://ghcr.io/nvidia/kai-scheduler/kai-scheduler -n kai-scheduler --create-namespace --version <KAI_SCHEDULER_VERSION> --set "global.gpuSharing=true"

Step 2: Install the KubeRay operator with KAI Scheduler as the batch scheduler#

Follow the official KubeRay operator installation documentation and add the following configuration to enable KAI Scheduler integration:

--set batchScheduler.name=kai-scheduler

Step 3: Create KAI Scheduler Queues#

Create a basic queue structure for department-1 and its child team-a. For demo reasons, this example doesn’t enforce any quota, overQuotaWeight, or limit. You can configure these parameters depending on your needs:

apiVersion: scheduling.run.ai/v2
kind: Queue
metadata:
  name: department-1
spec:
  #priority: 100 (optional)
  resources:
    cpu:
      quota: -1
      limit: -1
      overQuotaWeight: 1
    gpu:
      quota: -1
      limit: -1
      overQuotaWeight: 1
    memory:
      quota: -1
      limit: -1
      overQuotaWeight: 1
---
apiVersion: scheduling.run.ai/v2
kind: Queue
metadata:
  name: team-a
spec:
  #priority: 200 (optional)
  parentQueue: department-1
  resources:
    cpu:
      quota: -1
      limit: -1
      overQuotaWeight: 1
    gpu:
      quota: -1
      limit: -1
      overQuotaWeight: 1
    memory:
      quota: -1
      limit: -1
      overQuotaWeight: 1

Note: To make this demo easier to follow, we combined these queue definitions with the RayCluster example in the next step. You can use the single combined YAML file and apply both queues and workloads at once.

Step 4: Gang scheduling with KAI Scheduler#

The key pattern is to add the queue label to your RayCluster. Here’s a basic example from the KubeRay repository:

metadata:
  name: raycluster-sample
  labels:
    kai.scheduler/queue: team-a    # This is the essential configuration.

Apply this RayCluster with queues:

curl -LO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ray-project/kuberay/master/ray-operator/config/samples/ray-cluster.kai-scheduler.yaml

kubectl apply -f ray-cluster.kai-scheduler.yaml

#Verify queues are created
kubectl get queues

# Watch the pods get scheduled
kubectl get pods -w

Set priorities for workloads#

In Kubernetes, assigning different priorities to workloads ensures efficient resource management, minimizes service disruption, and supports better scaling. By prioritizing workloads, KAI Scheduler schedules jobs according to their assigned priority. When sufficient resources aren’t available for a workload, the scheduler can preempt lower-priority workloads to free up resources for higher-priority ones. This approach ensures the scheduler always prioritizes that mission-critical services in resource allocation.

KAI scheduler deployment comes with several predefined priority classes:

train (50) - use for preemptible training workloads
build-preemptible (75) - use for preemptible build/interactive workloads
build (100) - use for build/interactive workloads (non-preemptible)
inference (125) - use for inference workloads (non-preemptible)

You can submit the same workload above with a specific priority. Modify the above example into a build class workload:

  labels:
    kai.scheduler/queue: team-a    # This is the essential configuration.
    priorityClassName: build       # Here you can specify the priority class in metadata.labels (optional)

See the documentation for more information.

Troubleshooting#

Check for missing queue labels#

If pods remain in Pending state, the most common issue is missing queue labels.

Check operator logs for KAI Scheduler errors and look for error messages like:

"Queue label missing from RayCluster; pods will remain pending"

Solution: Ensure your RayCluster has the queue label that exists in the cluster:

metadata:
  labels:
    kai.scheduler/queue: default  # Add this label