Kserve Helm

KServe — Helm Deployment

Repo: https://kserve.github.io/helm-charts
Charts: 10 (see table below)
Latest: v0.18.0

Charts (10)

Prerequisites

Quick Install

Standard Mode (Knative + Istio)

# 1. Install Knative (if needed)
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/download/knative-v1.16.0/serving-crds.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/knative/serving/releases/download/knative-v1.16.0/serving-core.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/knative/net-istio/releases/download/knative-v1.16.0/net-istio.yaml

# 2. Install KServe
helm repo add kserve https://kserve.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update

# CRDs
helm install kserve-crd oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-crd \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve --create-namespace

# Controllers
helm install kserve-resources oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-resources \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

# Runtime configs
helm install kserve-runtime-configs oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-runtime-configs \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

Raw Deployment Mode (No Mesh)

# Minimal CRDs (InferenceService only)
helm install kserve-crd oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-crd-minimal \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve --create-namespace

# Minimal controller
helm install kserve-resources oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-resources-minimal \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

# Minimal runtime configs
helm install kserve-runtime-configs oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-runtime-configs-minimal \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

LLM Inference Service (Optional)

helm install kserve-llmisvc-crd oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-llmisvc-crd \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

helm install kserve-llmisvc-resources oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-llmisvc-resources \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

LocalModel (Optional)

helm install kserve-localmodel-crd oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-localmodel-crd \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

helm install kserve-localmodel-resources oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-localmodel-resources \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

Key Values (kserve-resources)

Controller

Webhook

Storage Initializer

Agent

Router

Global

Deployment Modes

Standard Mode (Serverless - Knative)

Default mode. Auto-scaling to zero via Knative. Requires Knative Serving + Istio.

helm install kserve-resources oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-resources \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve \
  --set kserve.controller.deploymentMode=Serverless

Characteristics:

• Auto-scaling to zero (cold start)
• Traffic splitting (canary)
• Revision-based model versioning
• Requires Knative + Istio

Raw Deployment Mode

Direct Deployments without Knative. No auto-scaling to zero. Simpler stack.

helm install kserve-resources oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-resources \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve \
  --set kserve.controller.deploymentMode=RawDeployment

Characteristics:

• No Knative dependency
• Standard K8s Deployments + Services
• HPA for autoscaling (minReplicas ≥ 1)
• Lighter resource usage

ModelMesh Mode

Multi-model serving on shared runtimes. Requires ServingRuntime CRDs.

helm install kserve-resources oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-resources \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve \
  --set kserve.controller.deploymentMode=ModelMesh

Characteristics:

• Multiple models per pod (multiModel)
• ServingRuntime templates
• Model pooling
• Efficient GPU utilization

Production Values Example

Standard Mode Production

kserve:
  controller:
    deploymentMode: Serverless
    replicas: 3
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 1Gi
      limits:
        cpu: 2
        memory: 4Gi
    env:
      - name: ENABLE_GPU
        value: "true"
    affinity:
      podAntiAffinity:
        requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
          - labelSelector:
              matchExpressions:
                - key: app
                  operator: In
                  values:
                    - kserve-controller
            topologyKey: kubernetes.io/hostname
    pdb:
      enabled: true
      maxUnavailable: 1

  webhook:
    replicas: 3
    resources:
      requests:
        cpu: 200m
        memory: 512Mi
      limits:
        cpu: 500m
        memory: 1Gi

  storageInitializer:
    env:
      - name: AWS_ENDPOINT_URL
        value: s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
      - name: AWS_REGION
        value: us-east-1

Raw Deployment Mode

kserve:
  controller:
    deploymentMode: RawDeployment
    gateway:
      ingressGateway:
        enabled: false
      clusterLocalGateway:
        enabled: false

Upgrading

helm repo update

# Upgrade CRDs first
helm upgrade kserve-crd oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-crd \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

# Upgrade controller
helm upgrade kserve-resources oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-resources \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

# Upgrade runtime configs
helm upgrade kserve-runtime-configs oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/kserve-runtime-configs \
  --version v0.18.0 --namespace kserve

Uninstalling

# Uninstall resources (reverses operation order)
helm uninstall kserve-runtime-configs --namespace kserve
helm uninstall kserve-localmodel-resources --namespace kserve
helm uninstall kserve-localmodel-crd --namespace kserve
helm uninstall kserve-llmisvc-resources --namespace kserve
helm uninstall kserve-llmisvc-crd --namespace kserve
helm uninstall kserve-resources --namespace kserve

# Uninstall CRDs last
helm uninstall kserve-crd --namespace kserve

# Delete namespace
kubectl delete namespace kserve

⚠️ WARNING: Uninstalling kserve-crd deletes ALL CRDs and cascades to delete ALL InferenceServices across ALL namespaces.

Common Mistakes

• CRDs not installed first — The controller chart fails without CRDs. Always install kserve-crd first.
• Missing cert-manager — KServe webhook requires cert-manager ≥ 1.12. Without it, controller pods crash-loop with webhook TLS errors.
• Deployment mode mismatch — Serverless mode requires Knative installed. RawDeployment does not. Set correctly before install.
• Knative + Istio version mismatch — KServe v0.18.0 requires Knative ≥ 1.16 and Istio ≥ 1.20. Version mismatch causes networking errors.
• Stale webhook certs — After upgrade, webhook certificates may need re-issuance. Restarting the webhook pod usually resolves.
• Gateway service exists — If istio-ingressgateway.istio-system doesn't exist in Standard mode, InferenceServices get Failed to get gateway status.
• Localmodel with non-NVMe storage — LocalModel cache works best with NVMe. Regular disks may cause model loading performance issues.
• ModelMesh with single model — ModelMesh expects multiModel: true on ServingRuntime. For single-model, use Standard mode.
• v0.19.0-rc0 caution — Release candidate. Test for production before using.
• OCI chart vs Helm repo — Use oci://ghcr.io/kserve/charts/ for v0.18.0+ charts. Older versions used the HTTPS helm repo.
• Annotations not propagated — Some predictor annotations (e.g., serving.kserve.io/deploymentMode) must be on the InferenceService, not the pod template.
• Storage initializer timeout — Large models (>10GB) may exceed the default init container timeout. Increase via kserve.storageInitializer.env.