How to use this image

Prerequisites

All examples in this guide use the public image. If you've mirrored the repository for your own use (for example, to your Docker Hub namespace), update your commands to reference the mirrored image instead of the public one.

For example:

• Public image: dhi.io/k8s-driver-manager:<version>
• Mirrored image: <your-namespace>/dhi-k8s-driver-manager:<version>

For the examples, you must first use docker login dhi.io to authenticate to the registry to pull the images.

What's included in this K8s Driver Manager image

This Docker Hardened Image ships the driver-manager binary (/usr/bin/driver-manager) and the vfio-manage binary (/usr/bin/vfio-manage). No ports are exposed.

Root and privileged requirement

Unlike most Docker Hardened Images, this image's runtime, dev, and FIPS variants all run as root (0:0), and its runtime variants ship a minimal shell (dash/coreutils on Debian, busybox on Alpine). This is an intentional, upstream-driven exception, not a hardening gap:

• driver-manager and vfio-managechroot into the host's mounted root filesystem to run modprobe and nvidia-smi, and driver-manager calls mount.RecursiveUnmount on the host mount namespace to safely unmount driver filesystems during an uninstall. None of this is possible as a non-root, capability-restricted user.
• The NVIDIA GPU Operator's own nvidia-vfio-manager DaemonSet runs this image's container as command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"], args: ["vfio-manage bind --all && while true; do sleep 86400; done"], with a preStop hook of /bin/sh -c "vfio-manage unbind --all" - a real, documented deployment pattern that requires a POSIX shell in the image.

Deployments of this image should run with securityContext.privileged: true (matching the GPU Operator's own manifests), not merely runAsUser: 0.

Start K8s Driver Manager

This image is not typically run standalone with docker run - it is invoked by the NVIDIA GPU Operator as a Kubernetes init container (driver-manager preflight_check / driver-manager uninstall_driver) and, for VFIO passthrough nodes, as a long-running sidecar (vfio-manage bind / vfio-manage unbind). To confirm the image and binaries:

$ docker run --rm --entrypoint driver-manager dhi.io/k8s-driver-manager:<version> --version
$ docker run --rm --entrypoint vfio-manage dhi.io/k8s-driver-manager:<version> --version

Replace <version> with the desired version.

Deploy through the NVIDIA GPU Operator

The GPU Operator pulls this image itself. Point its driver.manager values at the hardened image when installing or upgrading the chart:

$ helm upgrade --install gpu-operator nvidia/gpu-operator \
  --namespace gpu-operator --create-namespace \
  --set driver.manager.repository=dhi.io \
  --set driver.manager.image=k8s-driver-manager \
  --set driver.manager.version=<version>

The operator injects the image as the k8s-driver-manager init container of the nvidia-driver-daemonset. Verify the running pods picked it up:

$ kubectl -n gpu-operator get daemonset nvidia-driver-daemonset \
  -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.initContainers[?(@.name=="k8s-driver-manager")].image}'

Non-hardened images vs Docker Hardened Images

Image variants

Docker Hardened Images come in different variants depending on their intended use. Image variants are identified by their tag.

• Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:

  • Run as a nonroot user
  • Do not include a shell or a package manager
  • Contain only the minimal set of libraries needed to run the app

  k8s-driver-manager is an exception to the first two points above:driver-manager chroots into the host root to run modprobe and nvidia-smi and unmounts host driver filesystems, so this image runs as root, and the GPU Operator invokes vfio-manage through /bin/sh -c, so it includes a minimal shell. It still has no package manager.

• Build-time variants typically include dev in the tag name and are intended for use in the first stage of a multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:

  • Run as the root user
  • Include a shell and package manager
  • Are used to build or compile applications

• FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure cryptographic operations. For example, usage of MD5 fails in FIPS variants.

To view the image variants and get more information about them, select the Tags tab for this repository, and then select a tag.

Migrate to a Docker Hardened Image

To migrate your application to a Docker Hardened Image, you must update your Dockerfile. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing Dockerfile to a Docker Hardened Image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.

The following steps outline the general migration process.

1. Find hardened images for your app.

   A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs.

2. Update the base image in your Dockerfile.

   Update the base image in your application's Dockerfile to the hardened image you found in the previous step. For framework images, this is typically going to be an image tagged as dev because it has the tools needed to install packages and dependencies.

3. For multi-stage Dockerfiles, update the runtime image in your Dockerfile.

   To ensure that your final image is as minimal as possible, you should use a multi-stage build. All stages in your Dockerfile should use a hardened image. While intermediary stages will typically use images tagged as dev, your final runtime stage should use a non-dev image variant.

4. Install additional packages

   Docker Hardened Images contain minimal packages in order to reduce the potential attack surface. You may need to install additional packages in your Dockerfile. Inspect the image variants to identify which packages are already installed.

   Only images tagged as dev typically have package managers. You should use a multi-stage Dockerfile to install the packages. Install the packages in the build stage that uses a dev image. Then, if needed, copy any necessary artifacts to the runtime stage that uses a non-dev image.

   For Alpine-based images, you can use apk to install packages. For Debian-based images, you can use apt-get to install packages.

Troubleshooting migration

The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.

General debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Docker Hardened Images is to use Docker Debug⁠ to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session. k8s-driver-manager is an exception: it ships a minimal shell, so kubectl exec and docker exec work directly. Use a dev variant or Docker Debug when you need a package manager.

Permissions

By default image variants intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as the nonroot user can access them. k8s-driver-manager is an exception: it runs as root, so ownership is not usually the issue. Check instead that the host paths it needs, such as the mounted host root filesystem, are present and writable.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. To avoid issues, configure your application to listen on port 1025 or higher inside the container, even if you map it to a lower port on the host. For example, docker run -p 80:8080 my-image will work because the port inside the container is 8080, and docker run -p 80:81 my-image won't work because the port inside the container is 81. k8s-driver-manager is an exception: it exposes no ports and runs as root, so neither restriction applies.

No shell

By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers with no shell. k8s-driver-manager is an exception: it ships a minimal shell (dash on Debian, busybox on Alpine) on every variant, because the GPU Operator invokes vfio-manage through /bin/sh -c.

Entry point

Docker Hardened Images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Use docker inspect to inspect entry points for Docker Hardened Images and update your Dockerfile if necessary.