Chapter 4. Configure authentication for Distributed Inference with llm-d by using Red Hat Connectivity Link


Red Hat Connectivity Link provides Kubernetes-native authentication and authorization capabilities for Distributed Inference with llm-d inference endpoints when platform authentication is enabled on an LLMInferenceService. Red Hat Connectivity Link works with the gateway to intercept incoming traffic before it reaches the vLLM inference service, validating the requests based on authentication tokens and authorization policies. For more information about Red Hat Connectivity Link concepts and capabilities, see Introduction to Red Hat Connectivity Link.

Important

This procedure applies when you enable platform authentication on LLMInferenceService resources. Red Hat Connectivity Link is not required for every Distributed Inference with llm-d deployment. To deploy without platform authentication, set security.opendatahub.io/enable-auth: "false" on the LLMInferenceService as described in Enabling authentication and authorization for an LLM inference service.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed Red Hat Connectivity Link version 1.1.1 or later. For more information, see Installing Connectivity Link on OpenShift.
  • You have access to the OpenShift CLI (oc).
  • The ServiceAccount has permission to get the corresponding LLMInferenceService and you have generated a JSON web token (JWT).

Procedure

  1. Create the Kuadrant custom resource (CR) to set up required objects:

    oc apply -f - <<EOF
    apiVersion: kuadrant.io/v1beta1
    kind: Kuadrant
    metadata:
      name: kuadrant
      namespace: kuadrant-system
    EOF
  2. Wait for Kuadrant to become ready:

    oc wait Kuadrant -n kuadrant-system kuadrant --for=condition=Ready --timeout=10m
  3. Add the ServingCert annotation to the Authorino Service:

    oc annotate svc/authorino-authorino-authorization  service.beta.openshift.io/serving-cert-secret-name=authorino-server-cert -n kuadrant-system
  4. Wait for the secret to be created:

    sleep 2
  5. Update Authorino to enable SSL:

    oc apply -f - <<EOF
    apiVersion: operator.authorino.kuadrant.io/v1beta1
    kind: Authorino
    metadata:
      name: authorino
      namespace: kuadrant-system
    spec:
      replicas: 1
      clusterWide: true
      listener:
        tls:
          enabled: true
          certSecretRef:
            name: authorino-server-cert
      oidcServer:
        tls:
          enabled: false
    EOF
  6. Verify that the Authorino pods are ready:

    oc wait --for=condition=ready pod -l authorino-resource=authorino -n kuadrant-system --timeout 150s
  7. If OpenShift AI was installed before installing Connectivity Link and Kuadrant, restart the controllers:

    oc delete pod -n redhat-ods-applications -l app=odh-model-controller
    oc delete pod -n redhat-ods-applications -l control-plane=kserve-controller-manager
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