Bare-metal data plane node provisioning

To plan your data plane deployment, choose the node-provisioning method that fits your infrastructure. Understanding the differences between pre-provisioned and unprovisioned, bare-metal nodes helps you optimize your installation strategy.

  • Pre-provisioned node: You have used your own tools to install the operating system on the node before adding it to the data plane.
  • Unprovisioned node: The node does not have an operating system installed before you add it to the data plane. The node is provisioned by using the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (RHOCP) Cluster Baremetal Operator (CBO) as part of the data plane creation and deployment process. The CBO is a core RHOCP cluster Operator that is enabled by default on all platforms. Important
    When the CBO initially provisions nodes, it sets the clocks for the RHEL system and the system firmware (UEFI/BIOS) to the UTC time zone. After provisioning, use the edpm_timezone Ansible variable to set the clocks to another time zone.

A RHOSO environment can support all the remote hardware management protocol technologies and boot methods that Metal3 supports.

The platform on which you installed your RHOCP cluster limits the technologies and boot methods available to your RHOSO deployment for provisioning bare-metal data plane nodes. Therefore, you must plan your RHOSO deployment to ensure that the technologies and boot methods you require for provisioning bare-metal data plane nodes are supported on your RHOCP cluster platform.

Note

If you plan to provision unprovisioned data plane nodes in your RHOSO environment, you must deploy RHOCP using Installer-provisioned Infrastructure, Assisted Installer, or Agent-based Installer.

You require a Provisioning custom resource (CR) for node provisioning. The Provisioning CR is available on RHOCP clusters with the platform parameter set to baremetal in the install-config.yaml file. For all other platforms, contact the Red Hat Customer Experience and Engagement team for assistance.

Note
Provision bare-metal data plane nodes with virtual media rather than with iPXE boot, because iPXE boot might not be available in your RHOCP cluster.

Bare Metal Operator
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To provision and manage bare-metal nodes on your data plane, you can use the Bare Metal Operator (BMO). The Cluster Baremetal Operator (CBO) deploys this core component automatically on all platforms, allowing you to easily manage physical infrastructure.

The BMO manages the available hosts on clusters and performs the following operations:

  • Inspects node hardware details and reports them to the corresponding BareMetalHost CR. This includes information about CPUs, RAM, disks, and NICs.
  • Provisions nodes with a specific image.
  • Cleans node disk contents before and after provisioning.
Note

Nodes prepared for deployment are expected to be UEFI bootable. If a diskless, bare-metal node must be deployed using remote storage, it must be:

  • Bootable by the host UEFI firmware.
  • Have a Host-Bus Adapter hardware supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

The use of diskless nodes without a Host-Bus Adapter hardware such as iSCSI with an iSCSI Boot Firmware Table (iBFT), is not supported.