An AIDE single-node deployment installs on a single Linux VM that you provide. The installer provisions everything else automatically, including k3s, the Kubernetes runtime, and the supporting tools and host configuration that AI Data Engine requires. You don't need to install or manage Kubernetes, and you don't need Kubernetes expertise.

An AIDE single-node deployment is available in three sizes — Small, Medium, and Large — for environments up to approximately 200 million, 1 billion, and 3 billion files respectively. For full VM sizing and OS requirements, refer to AIDE requirements. These sizes are recommended baselines, not hard limits; see flexible sizing guidelines for what drives sizing and what to do if you outgrow a size.

Deploy an AIDE multi-node deployment if your environment requires high availability, fault tolerance, rolling upgrades, or capacity beyond the largest single-node deployment size. An AIDE multi-node deployment deploys onto an existing Kubernetes cluster. You must bring your own Kubernetes cluster (RKE2, OpenShift, or AKS). You provision and manage the cluster yourself, and it can be shared with other workloads or dedicated to AI Data Engine. The installer doesn't create or manage the cluster. The machine that you run the installer from is a lightweight management host and doesn't run AI Data Engine workloads.

An AIDE multi-node deployment is available in three sizes — Small, Medium, and Large — for environments up to approximately 1 billion, 3 billion, and 6 billion files respectively. For full node sizing and cluster requirements, refer to AIDE requirements. These sizes are recommended baselines, not hard limits: environments exceeding 6 billion files require custom sizing with NetApp. See flexible sizing guidelines for details.

You can deploy AI Data Engine directly from NetApp Console. Go to AI data hub > AI Data Engine and deploy AI Data Engine. Use the wizard to choose a deployment type, and then run the installation command in an environment that meets the AIDE requirements.

NetApp Console doesn't provision the infrastructure for AI Data Engine. For a single-node deployment, you prepare a Linux VM, and the installer sets up the rest. For a multi-node deployment, you prepare a Kubernetes cluster. In both cases, the infrastructure must meet the requirements. Then you copy the pre-generated installation command from NetApp Console and run it on the target host. The command bootstraps the runtime and deploys the AI Data Engine stack automatically.

Single-node deployments typically complete within 45 minutes. Multi-node deployments typically complete within 30 minutes. The installer includes built-in timeouts and retries to handle transient issues while components start.

For the complete steps, see Deploy AI Data Engine as a single-node deployment and Deploy AI Data Engine as a multi-node deployment.

If your host or cluster reaches the internet only through an outbound proxy, deploy AI Data Engine with a proxy. The proxy steps differ for each deployment type, so each type has its own complete topic that replaces the standard deployment topic.

For the complete steps, see Learn about proxies for AI Data Engine for the supported proxy types, and Outbound internet access for the endpoints to allow on your proxy.