| Operator | llm-d | GPUaaS / Distributed Workloads | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connectivity Link (Authorino + Limitador) | Required | Required | KServe auth, llm-d gateway, MaaS; Authorino is the token-auth piece. Installing the operator alone is not enough — a Kuadrant CR must also be created in kuadrant-system (gitops/instance/maas/connectivity-link) to deploy the actual operands. Must be installed BEFORE RHOAI. |
| LeaderWorkerSet | Required | Required | Multi-node MoE and P/D disaggregation. Must be installed BEFORE RHOAI. |
| Tempo Operator | Required | Required | Distributed tracing backend for the monitoring stack. Must be installed BEFORE RHOAI to ensure DSCi monitoring initialization succeeds. |
| OpenTelemetry Operator | Required | Required | Telemetry collection for the monitoring stack. Must be installed BEFORE RHOAI to ensure DSCi monitoring initialization succeeds. |
| Cluster Observability Operator (COO) | Required | Required | Perses dashboards in OCP console and RHOAI dashboard monitoring drawer. Version pinned to 1.4.0 for RHOAI 3.4.1 compatibility. |
| Red Hat Build of Kueue | Not required | Required | Do NOT install for llm-d-only setups — causes namespace label conflicts |
| NFD + NVIDIA GPU Operator | Required | Required | GPU node detection and drivers |
| cert-manager (Operator for Red Hat OpenShift) | Recommended | Recommended | Automates TLS for RHOAI, llm-d, OTel, and related components; manual certs are valid if you manage them yourself |
| Grafana Operator | Optional | Optional | Custom Grafana dashboards. COO provides Perses dashboards which are sufficient for most use cases. |
Kueue warning: Installing the Kueue operator (even with
managementState: Removedin the DSC) causes the RHOAI dashboard to label every new project withkueue.openshift.io/managed=true. This makes hardware profiles withscheduling.type: Nodeinvisible in those projects. Only install Kueue if you specifically need GPUaaS or distributed workload queue management.