Kueue E2e Cluster Singlecluster

You are an expert in Kueue's e2e testing infrastructure (hack/testing/e2e-test.sh, hack/testing/e2e-common.sh, hack/make/test.mk).

Goal

Stand up a single kind cluster with Kueue (and any required job-framework operators) deployed, ready for e2e tests or manual poking, and leave it running for fast iteration.

This skill is for single-cluster suites: test-e2e-baseline, test-e2e-extended, test-e2e-sequential-baseline, test-e2e-sequential-extended, test-tas-e2e-baseline, test-tas-e2e-extended, test-e2e-certmanager, test-e2e-dra, test-e2e-dra-counter. If the user wants MultiKueue (manager + worker clusters), use the kueue-e2e-cluster-multikueue skill instead.

Step 1 - Confirm platform and build the Kueue image

Ask/confirm architecture. On Apple Silicon (arm64) PLATFORM must be set explicitly; on amd64 it can be omitted.

# amd64
make kind-image-build

# arm64
PLATFORM=linux/arm64 make kind-image-build

Skip this step only if the user explicitly wants to use a released/staging image via IMAGE_TAG (see Step 4).

Step 2 - Pick the target suite

Map the user's request to a Makefile target:

Default to test-e2e-baseline if the user has no preference — it is the fastest to bring up and covers the core scheduling flows.

Step 3 - Bring up the cluster in dev mode

Set E2E_MODE=dev so the cluster is created (or reused if it already exists), Kueue is deployed, and the cluster is kept alive after the run instead of being torn down:

E2E_MODE=dev make kind-image-build <target>
# e.g.
E2E_MODE=dev make kind-image-build test-e2e-baseline

If the user only wants the environment ready (no test run), stay on E2E_MODE=dev and pass a non-matching GINKGO_ARGS label filter so ginkgo runs zero specs and exits immediately, while the cluster is still brought up and Kueue deployed:

E2E_MODE=dev GINKGO_ARGS="--label-filter=env-only-no-match" make kind-image-build test-e2e-baseline

Since E2E_MODE=dev keeps the cluster alive regardless of whether any specs ran, this avoids the legacy interactive E2E_RUN_ONLY_ENV=true mode (prompts Do you want to cleanup? [Y/n]) entirely — that flag is considered legacy/likely to be removed, so prefer this pattern.

Useful modifiers (combine with E2E_MODE=dev):

• GINKGO_ARGS="--label-filter=feature:jobset" — filter which specs run.
• GINKGO_ARGS="--focus='some spec name'" — focus on a specific spec.
• E2E_SKIP_REINSTALL=true — skip reinstalling Kueue if the deployment already exists and the image is unchanged (dev mode only, for fast reruns).
• E2E_SKIP_IMAGE_RELOAD=true — skip re-pulling/reloading dependency images already cached locally / present on kind nodes (dev mode only, speeds up repeat runs).
• E2E_ENFORCE_OPERATOR_UPDATE=true — force reinstalling external operators (JobSet, AppWrapper, KubeRay, etc.) even when reusing a cluster.
• E2E_K8S_FULL_VERSION=1.35.5 — pick a specific Kubernetes version (see E2E_K8S_VERSIONS in hack/make/test.mk for the current supported list, e.g. 1.34.8 1.35.5 1.36.1).
• KIND_CLUSTER_NAME=<name> — use a non-default kind cluster name (default is kind), useful for running multiple clusters side by side.

Step 4 - Optional: use a released or staging image instead of building

Skip make kind-image-build and pass IMAGE_TAG:

# Released version
E2E_MODE=dev IMAGE_TAG=registry.k8s.io/kueue/kueue:v0.16.0 make test-e2e-baseline

# Staging image (e.g. built from a PR or nightly)
E2E_MODE=dev IMAGE_TAG=us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/k8s-staging-images/kueue/kueue:main make test-e2e-baseline

To reproduce a specific released version end-to-end (matching CRDs/manifests), git checkout <tag> first, since config is committed per release.

Step 5 - Verify the cluster is ready

kubectl get nodes
kubectl -n kueue-system get pods
kubectl -n kueue-system get deployment kueue-controller-manager

The e2e script itself waits for the Kueue deployment to become available and for its webhook endpoints to be ready before running tests, so if the make target completed, the cluster should already be healthy.

Step 6 - Iterate

With E2E_MODE=dev, rerunning the same command reuses the existing cluster, rebuilds/reloads only what changed, and reruns tests — this is the normal iteration loop while developing:

E2E_MODE=dev make kind-image-build test-e2e-baseline

To loop a suite until it fails (flake hunting):

E2E_MODE=dev GINKGO_ARGS="--until-it-fails" make kind-image-build test-e2e-baseline

Step 7 - Clean up when done

kind delete clusters kind
# or, if a custom KIND_CLUSTER_NAME was used:
kind delete clusters <name>

Troubleshooting pointers

• Cluster config lives in hack/testing/kind-cluster.yaml (or hack/testing/kind-cluster-tas.yaml for TAS suites).
• All lifecycle logic (create/reuse/teardown, image loading, operator install/skip logic) lives in hack/testing/e2e-common.sh; the suite driver is hack/testing/e2e-test.sh.
• If cluster creation fails, check $ARTIFACTS/<cluster>-create.log (kind create output) and $ARTIFACTS/<cluster>-nodes.log / $ARTIFACTS/<cluster>-system-pods.log.
• Full reference docs: site/content/en/community/contribution_guidelines/testing.md.