CPU Management - CPU Pinning and Isolation in Kubernetes - Technology Guide

Oct 25, 2026

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CPU pinning and isolation capabilities enable efficient, deterministic workload utilization of available CPUs in Kubernetes. The guide introduces CPU Manager for Kubernetes (CMK) by Intel as an open-source component that improves CPU utilization and simplifies deployment. It covers setup and installation procedures, power management capability configuration and isolation processes, and provides performance benchmark results. It targets developers and architects integrating the technology into Kubernetes-based networking solutions to achieve improved network I/O and compute determinism on Intel Xeon processor platforms.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

AccessFree to download

1 Introduction

1.1 Intended Audience

1.2 Terminology

1.3 Reference Documentation

2 Overview

2.1 CPU Manager for Kubernetes*

2.2 CPU Manager (in native K8s)

2.3 Technology Comparison

3 Deployment

3.1 CPU Manager for Kubernetes*

3.2 Installation

3.3 CPU Manager for Kubernetes* Commands

3.3.1 Init

3.3.2 Install

3.3.3 Discover

3.3.4 Reconcile

TECHNOLOGY GUIDE Intel Corporation CPU Management-CPU Pinning and Isolation in Kubernetes* Technology Guide Authors Philip Brownlow Dave Cremins 1 Introduction This document discusses the CPU pinning and isolation capability, which enables efficient and deterministic workload utilization of the available CPUs. Kubernetes* (K8s*) supports CPU and memory as first-class resources. Intel has created CPU Manager for Kubernetes* (also called CMK), an open-source project that enables additional CPU utilization optimization capabilities for K8s* and simplifies their deployment. This document details the setup and installation of CPU Manager for Kubernetes*, set up of power management capabilities and processes for isolation, and associated performance benchmark results. The document is written for developers and architects who want to integrate the new technologies into their Kubernetes*-based networking solutions. This feature can be utilized along with the other Kubernetes capabilities in order to achieve improved network I/O, deterministic compute performance, and server platform sharing benefits offered by Intel® Xeon® Processor-based platforms. CPU pinning and isolation is part of a set of tools developed to enable platform capabilities discovery, intelligent configuration and workload-placement decisions resulting in improved and deterministic application performance. Note: For more setup and installation guidelines of a complete system, refer to the Deploying Kubernetes* and Container Bare Metal Platform for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Use Cases with Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors User Guide listed in Table 2. This document is part of the Container Experience Kit. Container Experience Kits are a collection of user guides, application notes, feature briefs, and other collateral that provide a library of best-practice documents for engineers who are developing container-based applications and can be found at: [https://networkbuilders.intel.com/network-technologies/container-experience-kits](https://networkbuilders.intel.com/network-technologies/container-experience-kits) Technology Guide | CPU Management-CPU Pinning and Isolation in Kubernetes* Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Intended Audience ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................3 1.2 Terminology ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................4 1.3 Reference Documentation ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................4 2 Overview ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 CPU Manager for Kubernetes* ............................................................................................................................................................................................................5 2.2 CPU Manager (in native K8s) ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................6 2.3 Technology Comparison......................................

FAQs

What problem does CPU pinning and isolation solve in Kubernetes workloads?

It enables efficient and deterministic utilization of the available CPUs for workloads running on Kubernetes.

What is CPU Manager for Kubernetes (CMK) and what does it provide?

CPU Manager for Kubernetes (CMK) is an Intel open-source project that adds CPU utilization optimization capabilities for Kubernetes and simplifies deployment.

Who is this technology guide intended for?

It is written for developers and architects who want to integrate the technologies into Kubernetes*-based networking solutions.

Oct 25, 2026

Upload by Aria