This topic introduces directx-device-plugin-windows and describes the usage notes and release notes for directx-device-plugin-windows.

Introduction

directx-device-plugin-windows is a DirectX device plug-in for Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) clusters. directx-device-plugin-windows enables GPU acceleration based on DirectX for Windows containers that are deployed on GPU-accelerated virtualization instances. For more information about GPU-accelerated virtualization instances, see GPU-accelerated virtualization instance families.

directx-device-plugin-windows supports only ACK clusters that use Kubernetes 1.20.4 or later.

Usage notes

By default, directx-device-plugin-windows is deployed as a DaemonSet. directx-device-plugin-windows is reliant on the privileged proxy processes of Windows nodes. directx-device-plugin-windows can be installed only on Windows nodes that are added with the windows.alibabacloud.com/deployment-topology=2.0 and the windows.alibabacloud.com/directx-supported=true labels.

The following section describes the rules for adding the windows.alibabacloud.com/deployment-topology=2.0 label to Windows nodes:
  • If the Kubernetes version of your cluster is 1.20.4 or later, the windows.alibabacloud.com/deployment-topology=2.0 label is automatically added to Windows nodes when the Windows nodes are created. If the Windows nodes are not added with the windows.alibabacloud.com/deployment-topology=2.0 label, you can manually add the label to the Windows nodes.
  • If the Kubernetes version of your cluster is earlier than 1.20.4, the windows.alibabacloud.com/deployment-topology=2.0 label is not added to Windows nodes when the Windows nodes are created. You cannot manually add the windows.alibabacloud.com/deployment-topology=2.0 label to the Windows nodes.

The following section describes the rules for adding the windows.alibabacloud.com/directx-supported=true label to Windows nodes:

When you create a Windows node pool, the instances that you select must be GPU-accelerated instances. This way, you can add the windows.alibabacloud.com/directx-supported=true label to the Windows nodes. If the instances that you are select are GPU-accelerated instances when you create the Windows node pool, the windows.alibabacloud.com/directx-supported=true label is automatically added to the Windows nodes. If the Windows nodes are not added with the windows.alibabacloud.com/directx-supported=true label, you can manually add the label to the Windows nodes.

directx-device-plugin-windows can only be manually installed. For more information, see Enable GPU acceleration for DirectX in Windows containers.

Release notes

August 2021

Version Image address Release date Description Impact
v1.0.0 registry-vpc.${region}.aliyuncs.com/acs/directx-device-plugin-windows:v1.0.0 2021-08-19
  • The base images are updated. The original version number is overwritten.
  • The following Windows operating systems are supported: Windows Server version 1809 (10.0.17763.2114), Windows Server version 1909 (10.0.18363.1556), and Windows Server version 2004 (10.0.19041.1165).
No impact on workloads.

July 2021

Version Image address Release date Description Impact
v1.0.0 registry-vpc.${region}.aliyuncs.com/acs/directx-device-plugin-windows:v1.0.0 2021-07-05 The following Windows operating systems are supported: Windows Server version 1809 (10.0.17763.1999), Windows Server version 1909 (10.0.18363.1556), and Windows Server version 2004 (10.0.19041.1052). No impact on workloads.