gpu operator

A GPU node needs a driver, a container toolkit, a device plugin, a metrics exporter and a validator, in that order, and each needs to know which nodes it belongs on. The operator's component chain, the labels NFD writes to trigger it, and the bring-up arithmetic that rules out doing it by hand.

A driver upgrade touches every layer at once: kernel module, CUDA runtime, container toolkit, NCCL, fabric driver, and every job's image. The compatibility matrix that decides whether a job can run on the new node, the canary that proves it, the wave arithmetic for 2,000 nodes, and the rehearsed rollback.