Apache YuniKorn vs Backend.AI

Apache YuniKorn is a resource scheduler for batch, data, and machine learning workloads on Kubernetes. It is a Kubernetes-compatible alternative to the default scheduler and is described as transparent to existing Kubernetes applications. Hierarchical queues provide fine-grained tenant controls that can reflect an organization’s structure. Scheduling features include gang scheduling, FIFO and Fair job ordering, resource fairness, reservations, and preemption. A web UI centralizes cluster capacity, utilization, and application information. YuniKorn exposes metrics through Prometheus, and project guidance covers monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana. The project recommends deployment to an existing Kubernetes cluster using its Helm chart and Helm 3 or later. The software is free under the Apache License 2.0. Releases include source tarballs, which must be built before use, and prebuilt Docker images. The project advises checking release artifacts for tampering with GPG or SHA-512. Help is available through the YuniKorn Slack #yunikorn-user channel or the user mailing list.

Backend.AI is an AI infrastructure platform for building, training, and serving models, as well as running parallel computing jobs. Its container-level GPU virtualization divides physical GPU capacity into fractional allocations so multiple users can share a GPU. The Sokovan scheduler supports multi-node, multi-tenant workloads and policy-based resource management. The platform says its hardware abstraction layer supports more than 12 accelerator types, including products from NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Rebellions, and FuriosaAI. It can be deployed on-premises, in public clouds, or in a hybrid setup; installation, model deployment, and updates can operate without internet connectivity in air-gapped networks. The browser-based WebUI provides cluster management, resource and session monitoring, and policy-based allocation. Listed cloud environments include AWS, GCP, Azure, and OCI. Storage integrations include VAST, WEKA, Pure Storage, and IBM Storage Scale, with NVIDIA GPUDirect Storage support. Open-source is free for home users installing on their own hardware. Enterprise plans require a quote. Production guidance says compute nodes should be network-isolated with restricted inbound access.