---
title: Kubernetes Deployment Guide
description: Deploy Llama Stack on Kubernetes clusters with vLLM inference service
sidebar_label: Kubernetes
sidebar_position: 2
---

import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs';
import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem';

# Kubernetes Deployment Guide

Deploy Llama Stack and vLLM servers in a Kubernetes cluster instead of running them locally. This guide covers both local development with Kind and production deployment on AWS EKS.

## Prerequisites

### Local Kubernetes Setup

Create a local Kubernetes cluster via Kind:

```bash
kind create cluster --image kindest/node:v1.32.0 --name llama-stack-test
```

Set your Hugging Face token:

```bash
export HF_TOKEN=$(echo -n "your-hf-token" | base64)
```

## Quick Deployment

### Step 1: Create Storage and Secrets

```yaml
cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: vllm-models
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  volumeMode: Filesystem
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 50Gi
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: hf-token-secret
type: Opaque
data:
  token: $HF_TOKEN
EOF
```

### Step 2: Deploy vLLM Server

```yaml
cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: vllm-server
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app.kubernetes.io/name: vllm
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app.kubernetes.io/name: vllm
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: vllm
        image: vllm/vllm-openai:latest
        command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"]
        args: ["vllm serve meta-llama/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct"]
        env:
        - name: HUGGING_FACE_HUB_TOKEN
          valueFrom:
            secretKeyRef:
              name: hf-token-secret
              key: token
        ports:
          - containerPort: 8000
        volumeMounts:
          - name: llama-storage
            mountPath: /root/.cache/huggingface
      volumes:
      - name: llama-storage
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: vllm-models
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: vllm-server
spec:
  selector:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: vllm
  ports:
  - protocol: TCP
    port: 8000
    targetPort: 8000
  type: ClusterIP
EOF
```

### Step 3: Configure Llama Stack

Update your run configuration:

```yaml
providers:
  inference:
  - provider_id: vllm
    provider_type: remote::vllm
    config:
      url: http://vllm-server.default.svc.cluster.local:8000/v1
      max_tokens: 4096
      api_token: fake
```

Build container image:

```bash
tmp_dir=$(mktemp -d) && cat >$tmp_dir/Containerfile.llama-stack-run-k8s <<EOF
FROM distribution-myenv:dev
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y git
RUN git clone https://github.com/meta-llama/llama-stack.git /app/llama-stack-source
ADD ./vllm-llama-stack-run-k8s.yaml /app/config.yaml
EOF
podman build -f $tmp_dir/Containerfile.llama-stack-run-k8s -t llama-stack-run-k8s $tmp_dir
```

### Step 4: Deploy Llama Stack Server

```yaml
cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: llama-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: llama-stack-server
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app.kubernetes.io/name: llama-stack
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app.kubernetes.io/name: llama-stack
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: llama-stack
        image: localhost/llama-stack-run-k8s:latest
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        command: ["llama", "stack", "run", "/app/config.yaml"]
        ports:
          - containerPort: 5000
        volumeMounts:
          - name: llama-storage
            mountPath: /root/.llama
      volumes:
      - name: llama-storage
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: llama-pvc
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: llama-stack-service
spec:
  selector:
    app.kubernetes.io/name: llama-stack
  ports:
  - protocol: TCP
    port: 5000
    targetPort: 5000
  type: ClusterIP
EOF
```

### Step 5: Test Deployment

```bash
# Port forward and test
kubectl port-forward service/llama-stack-service 5000:5000
llama-stack-client --endpoint http://localhost:5000 inference chat-completion --message "hello, what model are you?"
```

## Troubleshooting

**Check pod status:**
```bash
kubectl get pods -l app.kubernetes.io/name=vllm
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/name=vllm
```

**Test service connectivity:**
```bash
kubectl run -it --rm debug --image=curlimages/curl --restart=Never -- curl http://vllm-server:8000/v1/models
```

## Related Resources

- **[Deployment Overview](/docs/deploying/)** - Overview of deployment options
- **[Distributions](/docs/distributions)** - Understanding Llama Stack distributions
- **[Configuration](/docs/distributions/configuration)** - Detailed configuration options
