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Two OVN-Kubernetes, One DPU#

Open vSwitch and OVN 2026 Fall Conference digest Program Core pick 2–4 November 2026

Abstract

Alin Serdean, NVIDIA; Igal Tsoiref, Red Hat, LLC.

  • Why: DPU-mode ovn-kubernetes today serves only the host cluster — pods scheduled on the DPU's own node get nothing. Running two full ovn-k instances on one card, sharing only what must be shared, is a concrete step toward DPUs as first-class compute, which matters for accelerator-adjacent infrastructure.
  • What: A proposal and working prototype for a second, full-mode ovn-kubernetes instance on the same DPU, each instance keeping its own OVN databases and Kubernetes API, with the genuinely shared resources carefully partitioned. Built on co-hosted ovn-controller (experimental since 23.03, untagged in 26.09.0). (from abstract only)
  • How: The enumerated hard parts: system-id as the one key that can't be chassis-specific, conntrack zones staying clear of shared gateway zones, 15-character management-port name limits, two instances can't share a gateway bridge (ovnk owns its whole flow table), and ownership assignment for bridges, nftables tables, metrics ports and socket paths. Prototype demo; PRs referenced.
  • Where applicable: DPU-accelerated Kubernetes (NVIDIA BlueField-class cards, Red Hat + NVIDIA joint work). The resource-partitioning lessons generalize to any two network stacks sharing one host.