# Node Taints and Affinities (/docs/runtime/components/node-taints-and-affinities)



Component Category [#component-category]

Cluster operations / scheduling and placement

Component Description [#component-description]

Node taints, tolerations, and affinities are Kubernetes scheduling controls used to steer workloads onto the right nodes.

Why It Is Used [#why-it-is-used]

In BullSequana AI Runtime, these controls help reserve specialized hardware for the workloads that need it most. They are especially important for GPU inference, high-storage services, and other components that should not compete with general-purpose workloads for the wrong node types.

Learn More [#learn-more]

* [Kubernetes taints and tolerations](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/taint-and-toleration/)
* [Kubernetes node affinity](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/assign-pod-node/)

Interacts With [#interacts-with]

* `KubeAI`, `vLLM`, and `Faster Whisper`, which often need GPU-aware scheduling.
* `MinIO` and `PostgreSQL`, when storage-heavy workloads should be steered to specific nodes.
* `Prometheus` and `Grafana`, which help operators verify workload placement and resource behavior after scheduling rules are applied.