Kubernetes DRA CDI devices are not injected when using cri-dockerd + Docker runtime

[xwonec]

Environment

• Kubernetes: v1.35.3
• Runtime: cri-dockerd
• Docker Engine: v29.4.0
• NVIDIA DRA Driver: v25.12.0
• NVIDIA Driver: 595.71.05
• OS: Ubuntu 22.04

Docker daemon configuration:

{
    "data-root": "/data/docker",
    "default-runtime": "nvidia",
    "exec-opts": [
        "native.cgroupdriver=systemd"
    ],
    "features": {
        "cdi": true
    },
    "log-opts": {
        "max-file": "3",
        "max-size": "5m"
    },
    "registry-mirrors": [
        "https://docker.1ms.run"
    ],
    "runtimes": {
        "nvidia": {
            "args": [],
            "path": "nvidia-container-runtime"
        }
    }
}

Problem

I am testing Kubernetes DRA with the NVIDIA DRA driver and CDI enabled.

The DRA driver appears to work correctly:

• ResourceClaim is allocated successfully
• CDI YAML files are generated under /var/run/cdi
• The kubelet plugin logs show successful preparation of CDI devices

Example plugin log:

Returning newly prepared devices for claim 'gpu-test2/pod-shared-gpu-xxxx':
[{[gpu] node2 gpu-0 [k8s.gpu.nvidia.com/claim=xxxx-gpu-0]}]

Generated CDI specs exist:

ls /var/run/cdi/

k8s.gpu.nvidia.com-claim_xxx.yaml
nvidia.yaml

However, inside the Kubernetes Pod:

• /dev/nvidia* devices are missing
• nvidia-smi is unavailable
• no GPU devices are injected into the container

Example:

ls /dev/

core fd null pts random shm stderr stdin stdout tty urandom zero

No NVIDIA devices are present.

Observation

This seems to indicate that:

1. Kubernetes DRA allocation succeeds
2. CDI specs are generated correctly
3. But CDI devices are not propagated through cri-dockerd into Docker runtime

It looks like the CDIDevices field from CRI may not be forwarded by cri-dockerd.

Additional Notes

Docker CDI itself appears functional.

For example, Docker standalone CDI/device injection works correctly outside Kubernetes.

The issue only occurs in the Kubernetes + cri-dockerd path.

Questions

1. Does cri-dockerd currently support Kubernetes DRA CDI device propagation?
2. Is the CRI CDIDevices field implemented and forwarded to Docker Engine?
3. Is Kubernetes DRA officially supported with cri-dockerd?
4. If not supported yet, are there plans to add support?

Thanks.