Compute
The compute layer runs virtual machines on bare metal nodes using KVM and libvirt. Kubernetes operators manage node lifecycle, health monitoring, and failover.
Components
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| Hypervisor | KVM hypervisor managed by the Hypervisor Operator; runs VMs via libvirt |
| HA Service | Monitors hypervisor health and triggers evacuation when nodes fail |
| GPU / SR-IOV | Passthrough GPU and SR-IOV NIC support for latency-sensitive workloads |
How it fits in the stack
The compute layer sits between the platform (IronCore-managed bare metal, Gardener-managed Kubernetes) and OpenStack (Nova scheduler, which places VMs on hypervisors). The Hypervisor Operator connects these: it registers new nodes discovered by IronCore into Nova, and drives the evacuation flow when a node needs to be drained.