|Index|SUSE AI Factory with NVIDIA Requirements|Release notes
Applies to SUSE AI Factory with NVIDIA

A Release notes

 

A1 Release 2.0.0

 

This is the first official release of SUSE AI Factory with NVIDIA, bringing comprehensive AI workload management capabilities to Rancher.

SUSE AI Factory is a Rancher UI Extension for managing AI workloads and applications across Kubernetes clusters. This extension provides a unified interface for installing, managing and monitoring AI applications in Rancher-managed clusters.

Note
Note

This extension requires an active SUSE AI Factory subscription to access the application catalog.

A1.1 What’s new

 

A1.1.1 Core features

 
A1.1.1.1 AI workload management
 

  • Multi-cluster AI workload deployment: Deploy and manage AI applications across multiple Rancher-managed Kubernetes clusters from a single interface

  • Blueprint-based application templates: Preconfigured application blueprints for common AI use cases:

    • Simple Chatbot with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

    • Simple Chatbot with RAG using vLLM

    • NVIDIA RAG Minimal deployment

    • SUSE Inference Endpoint

  • Declarative workload definition: Kubernetes-native Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs) for AI workloads, blueprints, and settings

  • GitOps integration: Fleet-based GitOps workflow support for managing AI workload configurations

A1.1.1.2 User interface
 

  • Unified dashboard: Overview page with at-a-glance statistics and recent activity

  • Application catalog: Browse and install AI applications from SUSE AI Factory and NVIDIA AI Library

  • Multi-step installation wizard: Guided workflows for deploying applications and blueprints

  • Application instance management: Monitor and manage deployed AI workloads and their metrics

  • Blueprint management: Create, edit, and manage custom blueprints

  • Settings management: Helm and Git repositories configuration

A1.1.1.3 Operator and backend
 

  • SUSE AI operator: Kubernetes operator managing the lifecycle of AI extensions and workloads

  • Custom resource definitions:

    • AIWorkload: Defines AI application instances

    • Blueprint: Defines reusable application templates

    • InstallAIExtension: Manages UI extension installation

    • Settings: Centralized configuration management

  • Multiple deployment strategies: Helm for simple deployments to local clusters, Fleet integration for GitOps for downstream and multi-cluster deployments

  • Multi-vendor support: Seamless integration with both SUSE and NVIDIA AI components

  • Credential management: Automatic injection of registry credentials and pull secrets

A1.1.1.4 Integration and connectivity
 

  • SUSE application collection integration: Access to curated AI application catalog

  • NVIDIA NGC integration: Direct access to NVIDIA AI applications and models

  • Fleet integration: GitOps-based deployment workflows

  • Multi-cluster support: Deploy to local and downstream Rancher clusters

A1.2 Known issues and behaviors

 

A1.2.1 Installation and deployment

 

  • Fleet must be installed before deploying the AIF operator, the installation of the AIF operator may fail.

  • Standalone UI extension installation through Rancher Extensions interface is not supported. Use the AIF operator default values to install it.

  • Images are distributed via GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io). In the following releases, images will be distributed via the SUSE Registry.

A1.2.2 NVIDIA blueprints

 

  • RAG v2.5.1+: rag-server image version 2.5.1 does not exist in the registry. See #618.

  • RAG v2.5.0+: nv-ingest deployment renders duplicate OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT environment variable, causing Fleet/ArgoCD deployments to fail. See #687.

  • RAG v2.6.0: NIM embedding and reranking charts do not pass model.profiles to NIMCache, causing all profiles (~11) to download instead of the selected one. See #681.

  • RAG v2.5.1+: Service names use hardcoded nvidia-blueprint-rag prefix and ignore nameOverride/fullnameOverride values. See #662.

  • RAG v2.6.0: Critical - NIMs cannot be deployed in air-gapped environments; chart missing spec.storage.pvc.name field to use existing PVC. See #693.

  • AIQ v2.1.0: Chart hardcodes ns-aiq namespace, ignoring release namespace; incompatible with Fleet/ArgoCD. See #290.

  • AIQ v2.1.0+: Local inference configuration requires manual ConfigMap creation; not documented or exposed via Helm values. See #302.

A1.2.3 NVIDIA AI Library

 

  • Not all NVIDIA Helm charts in the catalog are NVIDIA AI Enterprise supported; verify support status at the NGC Helm catalog.

A1.2.4 Blueprint customization

 

  • Bundled blueprints cannot be modified directly during the deployment. Users must create a copy to customize configuration or component versions.

A1.2.5 Deprecations

 

SUSE AI Deployer and SUSE AI Lifecycle Manager are now superseded by SUSE AI Factory. Update as soon as possible.