Self-Scaling LLM Infrastructure Powered by Rancher

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Description

The Problem

Running LLMs can get expensive and complex pretty quickly.

Today there are typically two choices:

  1. Use cloud APIs like OpenAI or Anthropic. Easy to start with, but costs add up at scale.
  2. Self-host everything - set up Kubernetes, figure out GPU scheduling, handle scaling, manage model serving... it's a lot of work.

What if there was a middle ground?

Project Repository: github.com/alexander-demicev/llmserverless


What This Project Does

A key feature is hybrid deployment: requests can be routed based on complexity or privacy needs. Simple or low-sensitivity queries can use public APIs (like OpenAI), while complex or private requests are handled in-house on local infrastructure. This flexibility allows balancing cost, privacy, and performance - using cloud for routine tasks and on-premises resources for sensitive or demanding workloads.

A complete, self-scaling LLM infrastructure that:

  • Scales to zero when idle (no idle costs)
  • Scales up automatically when requests come in
  • Adds more nodes when needed, removes them when demand drops
  • Runs on any infrastructure - laptop, bare metal, or cloud

Think of it as "serverless for LLMs" - focus on building, the infrastructure handles itself.

How It Works

A combination of open source tools working together:

Flow:

  • Users interact with OpenWebUI (chat interface)
  • Requests go to LiteLLM Gateway
  • LiteLLM routes requests to:
    • Ollama (Knative) for local model inference (auto-scales pods)
    • Or cloud APIs for fallback
  • Cluster Autoscaler scales nodes up/down as needed
  • Fleet keeps everything in sync via GitOps

Goals

  • Provide a middle ground between cloud APIs and self-hosted LLMs
  • Enable cost-efficient, privacy-preserving, and flexible LLM deployments
  • Make LLM infrastructure easy to deploy and manage (Helm chart, GitOps)
  • Support local development and production scaling
  • Experiment with hybrid routing, serverless scaling, and GitOps automation

Resources

Features

  • Packaged as a Helm chart: The entire stack is delivered as a Helm chart for easy deployment. See the project repository for setup instructions.
  • Scale to Zero: No requests? No pods. No pods? No nodes (well, minimum 1). LLM infrastructure costs nothing when idle.
  • Hybrid Routing: Simple requests can use public APIs, while complex or private queries are handled in-house, balancing cost and privacy.
  • GitOps Native: Everything is Fleet bundles.
  • Local Development Ready: Uses KIND + Docker provider for local dev. Same architecture that scales to production.

Tech Stack

  • Rancher 2.13 - Cluster management (Turtles is now built-in!)
  • Cluster API - Infrastructure as Kubernetes resources
  • Knative Serving - Serverless pod autoscaling
  • Ollama - Run LLMs locally
  • LiteLLM - Unified LLM API gateway
  • OpenWebUI - Chat interface
  • Fleet - GitOps deployment

What's Next

This is a hackweek project, but here are ideas for the future: - GPU node pools for production workloads - Cloud provider templates (AWS/Azure/GCP) - Smarter routing based on prompt complexity - Cost tracking dashboard - Response caching

Setup & Usage

For all setup and usage instructions, please refer to the project repository.

Why This Matters

LLMs are becoming a core part of many applications. But infrastructure options are still catching up.

This project explores a middle path:

  • Privacy - run models locally, keep data in-house
  • Cost efficiency - scale to zero, pay only for actual usage
  • Flexibility - mix local and cloud models based on needs
  • Simplicity - one command to deploy, GitOps to manage

It's an experiment in making LLM infrastructure more accessible and practical.

Looking for hackers with the skills:

rancher ai ll llm kubernetes

This project is part of:

Hack Week 25

Activity

  • about 2 hours ago: ademicev0 liked this project.
  • about 3 hours ago: ademicev0 added keyword "llm" to this project.
  • about 3 hours ago: ademicev0 added keyword "kubernetes" to this project.
  • about 3 hours ago: ademicev0 added keyword "rancher" to this project.
  • about 3 hours ago: ademicev0 added keyword "ai" to this project.
  • about 3 hours ago: ademicev0 added keyword "ll" to this project.
  • about 3 hours ago: ademicev0 started this project.
  • about 3 hours ago: ademicev0 originated this project.

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    Goals

    • Technical Skill Development: equip students with the fundamental knowledge and skills to build, deploy, and manage containerized applications using open-source tools like Kubernetes.
    • Open-Source Mindset: foster a passion for open-source software, encouraging students to contribute to open-source projects and collaborate with the global developer community.
    • Career Readiness: prepare students for industry-relevant roles by exposing them to real-world use cases, best practices, and open-source in companies.

    Resources

    • Instructors: experienced open-source professionals with deep knowledge of containerization and Kubernetes.
    • SUSE Expertise: leverage SUSE's expertise in open-source technologies to provide insights into industry trends and best practices.


    Cluster API Provider for Harvester by rcase

    Project Description

    The Cluster API "infrastructure provider" for Harvester, also named CAPHV, makes it possible to use Harvester with Cluster API. This enables people and organisations to create Kubernetes clusters running on VMs created by Harvester using a declarative spec.

    The project has been bootstrapped in HackWeek 23, and its code is available here.

    Work done in HackWeek 2023

    • Have a early working version of the provider available on Rancher Sandbox : *DONE *
    • Demonstrated the created cluster can be imported using Rancher Turtles: DONE
    • Stretch goal - demonstrate using the new provider with CAPRKE2: DONE and the templates are available on the repo

    DONE in HackWeek 24:

    DONE in 2025 (out of Hackweek)

    • Support of ClusterClass
    • Add to clusterctl community providers, you can add it directly with clusterctl
    • Testing on newer versions of Harvester v1.4.X and v1.5.X
    • Support for clusterctl generate cluster ...
    • Improve Status Conditions to reflect current state of Infrastructure
    • Improve CI (some bugs for release creation)

    Goals for HackWeek 2025

    • FIRST and FOREMOST, any topic is important to you
    • Add e2e testing
    • Certify the provider for Rancher Turtles
    • Add Machine pool labeling
    • Add PCI-e passthrough capabilities.
    • Other improvement suggestions are welcome!

    Thanks to @isim and Dominic Giebert for their contributions!

    Resources

    Looking for help from anyone interested in Cluster API (CAPI) or who wants to learn more about Harvester.

    This will be an infrastructure provider for Cluster API. Some background reading for the CAPI aspect:


    The Agentic Rancher Experiment: Do Androids Dream of Electric Cattle? by moio

    Rancher is a beast of a codebase. Let's investigate if the new 2025 generation of GitHub Autonomous Coding Agents and Copilot Workspaces can actually tame it. A GitHub robot mascot trying to lasso a blue bull with a Kubernetes logo tatooed on it


    The Plan

    Create a sandbox GitHub Organization, clone in key Rancher repositories, and let the AI loose to see if it can handle real-world enterprise OSS maintenance - or if it just hallucinates new breeds of Kubernetes resources!

    Specifically, throw "Agentic Coders" some typical tasks in a complex, long-lived open-source project, such as:


    The Grunt Work: generate missing GoDocs, unit tests, and refactorings. Rebase PRs.

    The Complex Stuff: fix actual (historical) bugs and feature requests to see if they can traverse the complexity without (too much) human hand-holding.

    Hunting Down Gaps: find areas lacking in docs, areas of improvement in code, dependency bumps, and so on.


    If time allows, also experiment with Model Context Protocol (MCP) to give agents context on our specific build pipelines and CI/CD logs.

    Why?

    We know AI can write "Hello World." and also moderately complex programs from a green field. But can it rebase a 3-month-old PR with conflicts in rancher/rancher? I want to find the breaking point of current AI agents to determine if and how they can help us to reduce our technical debt, work faster and better. At the same time, find out about pitfalls and shortcomings.

    The Outputs

    ❥ A "State of the Agentic Union" for SUSE engineers, detailing what works, what explodes, and how much coffee we can drink while the robots do the rebasing.

    ❥ Honest, Daily Updates With All the Gory Details