Chapter 3. Bare metal configuration
When deploying OpenShift Container Platform on bare metal hosts, there are times when you need to make changes to the host either before or after provisioning. This can include inspecting the host’s hardware, firmware, and firmware details. It can also include formatting disks or changing modifiable firmware settings.
3.1. About the Bare Metal Operator
Use the Bare Metal Operator (BMO) to provision, manage, and inspect bare-metal hosts in your cluster.
The BMO uses three resources to complete these tasks:
-
BareMetalHost
-
HostFirmwareSettings
-
FirmwareSchema
The BMO maintains an inventory of the physical hosts in the cluster by mapping each bare-metal host to an instance of the BareMetalHost
custom resource definition. Each BareMetalHost
resource features hardware, software, and firmware details. The BMO continually inspects the bare-metal hosts in the cluster to ensure each BareMetalHost
resource accurately details the components of the corresponding host.
The BMO also uses the HostFirmwareSettings
resource and the FirmwareSchema
resource to detail firmware specifications for the bare-metal host.
The BMO interfaces with bare-metal hosts in the cluster by using the Ironic API service. The Ironic service uses the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) on the host to interface with the machine.
Some common tasks you can complete by using the BMO include the following:
- Provision bare-metal hosts to the cluster with a specific image
- Format a host’s disk contents before provisioning or after deprovisioning
- Turn on or off a host
- Change firmware settings
- View the host’s hardware details
3.1.1. Bare Metal Operator architecture
The Bare Metal Operator (BMO) uses three resources to provision, manage, and inspect bare-metal hosts in your cluster. The following diagram illustrates the architecture of these resources:
BareMetalHost
The BareMetalHost
resource defines a physical host and its properties. When you provision a bare-metal host to the cluster, you must define a BareMetalHost
resource for that host. For ongoing management of the host, you can inspect the information in the BareMetalHost
or update this information.
The BareMetalHost
resource features provisioning information such as the following:
- Deployment specifications such as the operating system boot image or the custom RAM disk
- Provisioning state
- Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) address
- Desired power state
The BareMetalHost
resource features hardware information such as the following:
- Number of CPUs
- MAC address of a NIC
- Size of the host’s storage device
- Current power state
HostFirmwareSettings
You can use the HostFirmwareSettings
resource to retrieve and manage the firmware settings for a host. When a host moves to the Available
state, the Ironic service reads the host’s firmware settings and creates the HostFirmwareSettings
resource. There is a one-to-one mapping between the BareMetalHost
resource and the HostFirmwareSettings
resource.
You can use the HostFirmwareSettings
resource to inspect the firmware specifications for a host or to update a host’s firmware specifications.
You must adhere to the schema specific to the vendor firmware when you edit the spec
field of the HostFirmwareSettings
resource. This schema is defined in the read-only FirmwareSchema
resource.
FirmwareSchema
Firmware settings vary among hardware vendors and host models. A FirmwareSchema
resource is a read-only resource that contains the types and limits for each firmware setting on each host model. The data comes directly from the BMC by using the Ironic service. The FirmwareSchema
resource enables you to identify valid values you can specify in the spec
field of the HostFirmwareSettings
resource.
A FirmwareSchema
resource can apply to many BareMetalHost
resources if the schema is the same.
3.2. About the BareMetalHost resource
Metal3 introduces the concept of the BareMetalHost
resource, which defines a physical host and its properties. The BareMetalHost
resource contains two sections:
-
The
BareMetalHost
spec -
The
BareMetalHost
status
3.2.1. The BareMetalHost spec
The spec
section of the BareMetalHost
resource defines the desired state of the host.
Parameters | Description |
---|---|
|
An interface to enable or disable automated cleaning during provisioning and de-provisioning. When set to |
bmc: address: credentialsName: disableCertificateVerification: |
The
|
| The MAC address of the NIC used for provisioning the host. |
|
The boot mode of the host. It defaults to |
|
A reference to another resource that is using the host. It could be empty if another resource is not currently using the host. For example, a |
| A human-provided string to help identify the host. |
| A boolean indicating whether the host provisioning and deprovisioning are managed externally. When set:
|
|
Contains information about the BIOS configuration of bare metal hosts. Currently,
|
image: url: checksum: checksumType: format: |
The
|
| A reference to the secret containing the network configuration data and its namespace, so that it can be attached to the host before the host boots to set up the network. |
|
A boolean indicating whether the host should be powered on ( |
raid: hardwareRAIDVolumes: softwareRAIDVolumes: | (Optional) Contains the information about the RAID configuration for bare metal hosts. If not specified, it retains the current configuration. Note OpenShift Container Platform 4.15 supports hardware RAID for BMCs, including:
OpenShift Container Platform 4.15 does not support software RAID. See the following configuration settings:
You can set the spec: raid: hardwareRAIDVolume: []
If you receive an error message indicating that the driver does not support RAID, set the |
rootDeviceHints: deviceName: hctl: model: vendor: serialNumber: minSizeGigabytes: wwn: wwnWithExtension: wwnVendorExtension: rotational: |
The
|
3.2.2. The BareMetalHost status
The BareMetalHost
status represents the host’s current state, and includes tested credentials, current hardware details, and other information.
Parameters | Description |
---|---|
| A reference to the secret and its namespace holding the last set of baseboard management controller (BMC) credentials the system was able to validate as working. |
| Details of the last error reported by the provisioning backend, if any. |
| Indicates the class of problem that has caused the host to enter an error state. The error types are:
|
hardware: cpu arch: model: clockMegahertz: flags: count: |
The
|
hardware: firmware: | Contains BIOS firmware information. For example, the hardware vendor and version. |
hardware: nics: - ip: name: mac: speedGbps: vlans: vlanId: pxe: |
The
|
hardware: ramMebibytes: | The host’s amount of memory in Mebibytes (MiB). |
hardware: storage: - name: rotational: sizeBytes: serialNumber: |
The
|
hardware: systemVendor: manufacturer: productName: serialNumber: |
Contains information about the host’s |
| The timestamp of the last time the status of the host was updated. |
| The status of the server. The status is one of the following:
|
| Boolean indicating whether the host is powered on. |
provisioning: state: id: image: raid: firmware: rootDeviceHints: |
The
|
| A reference to the secret and its namespace holding the last set of BMC credentials that were sent to the provisioning backend. |
3.3. Getting the BareMetalHost resource
The BareMetalHost
resource contains the properties of a physical host. You must get the BareMetalHost
resource for a physical host to review its properties.
Procedure
Get the list of
BareMetalHost
resources:$ oc get bmh -n openshift-machine-api -o yaml
NoteYou can use
baremetalhost
as the long form ofbmh
withoc get
command.Get the list of hosts:
$ oc get bmh -n openshift-machine-api
Get the
BareMetalHost
resource for a specific host:$ oc get bmh <host_name> -n openshift-machine-api -o yaml
Where
<host_name>
is the name of the host.Example output
apiVersion: metal3.io/v1alpha1 kind: BareMetalHost metadata: creationTimestamp: "2022-06-16T10:48:33Z" finalizers: - baremetalhost.metal3.io generation: 2 name: openshift-worker-0 namespace: openshift-machine-api resourceVersion: "30099" uid: 1513ae9b-e092-409d-be1b-ad08edeb1271 spec: automatedCleaningMode: metadata bmc: address: redfish://10.46.61.19:443/redfish/v1/Systems/1 credentialsName: openshift-worker-0-bmc-secret disableCertificateVerification: true bootMACAddress: 48:df:37:c7:f7:b0 bootMode: UEFI consumerRef: apiVersion: machine.openshift.io/v1beta1 kind: Machine name: ocp-edge-958fk-worker-0-nrfcg namespace: openshift-machine-api customDeploy: method: install_coreos online: true rootDeviceHints: deviceName: /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-<serial_number> userData: name: worker-user-data-managed namespace: openshift-machine-api status: errorCount: 0 errorMessage: "" goodCredentials: credentials: name: openshift-worker-0-bmc-secret namespace: openshift-machine-api credentialsVersion: "16120" hardware: cpu: arch: x86_64 clockMegahertz: 2300 count: 64 flags: - 3dnowprefetch - abm - acpi - adx - aes model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 5218 CPU @ 2.30GHz firmware: bios: date: 10/26/2020 vendor: HPE version: U30 hostname: openshift-worker-0 nics: - mac: 48:df:37:c7:f7:b3 model: 0x8086 0x1572 name: ens1f3 ramMebibytes: 262144 storage: - hctl: "0:0:0:0" model: VK000960GWTTB name: /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-<serial_number> sizeBytes: 960197124096 type: SSD vendor: ATA systemVendor: manufacturer: HPE productName: ProLiant DL380 Gen10 (868703-B21) serialNumber: CZ200606M3 lastUpdated: "2022-06-16T11:41:42Z" operationalStatus: OK poweredOn: true provisioning: ID: 217baa14-cfcf-4196-b764-744e184a3413 bootMode: UEFI customDeploy: method: install_coreos image: url: "" raid: hardwareRAIDVolumes: null softwareRAIDVolumes: [] rootDeviceHints: deviceName: /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-<serial_number> state: provisioned triedCredentials: credentials: name: openshift-worker-0-bmc-secret namespace: openshift-machine-api credentialsVersion: "16120"
3.4. About the HostFirmwareSettings resource
You can use the HostFirmwareSettings
resource to retrieve and manage the BIOS settings for a host. When a host moves to the Available
state, Ironic reads the host’s BIOS settings and creates the HostFirmwareSettings
resource. The resource contains the complete BIOS configuration returned from the baseboard management controller (BMC). Whereas, the firmware
field in the BareMetalHost
resource returns three vendor-independent fields, the HostFirmwareSettings
resource typically comprises many BIOS settings of vendor-specific fields per host.
The HostFirmwareSettings
resource contains two sections:
-
The
HostFirmwareSettings
spec. -
The
HostFirmwareSettings
status.
3.4.1. The HostFirmwareSettings
spec
The spec
section of the HostFirmwareSettings
resource defines the desired state of the host’s BIOS, and it is empty by default. Ironic uses the settings in the spec.settings
section to update the baseboard management controller (BMC) when the host is in the Preparing
state. Use the FirmwareSchema
resource to ensure that you do not send invalid name/value pairs to hosts. See "About the FirmwareSchema resource" for additional details.
Example
spec:
settings:
ProcTurboMode: Disabled1
- 1
- In the foregoing example, the
spec.settings
section contains a name/value pair that will set theProcTurboMode
BIOS setting toDisabled
.
Integer parameters listed in the status
section appear as strings. For example, "1"
. When setting integers in the spec.settings
section, the values should be set as integers without quotes. For example, 1
.
3.4.2. The HostFirmwareSettings
status
The status
represents the current state of the host’s BIOS.
Parameters | Description |
---|---|
status: conditions: - lastTransitionTime: message: observedGeneration: reason: status: type: |
The
|
status: schema: name: namespace: lastUpdated: |
The
|
status: settings: |
The |
3.5. Getting the HostFirmwareSettings resource
The HostFirmwareSettings
resource contains the vendor-specific BIOS properties of a physical host. You must get the HostFirmwareSettings
resource for a physical host to review its BIOS properties.
Procedure
Get the detailed list of
HostFirmwareSettings
resources:$ oc get hfs -n openshift-machine-api -o yaml
NoteYou can use
hostfirmwaresettings
as the long form ofhfs
with theoc get
command.Get the list of
HostFirmwareSettings
resources:$ oc get hfs -n openshift-machine-api
Get the
HostFirmwareSettings
resource for a particular host$ oc get hfs <host_name> -n openshift-machine-api -o yaml
Where
<host_name>
is the name of the host.
3.6. Editing the HostFirmwareSettings resource
You can edit the HostFirmwareSettings
of provisioned hosts.
You can only edit hosts when they are in the provisioned
state, excluding read-only values. You cannot edit hosts in the externally provisioned
state.
Procedure
Get the list of
HostFirmwareSettings
resources:$ oc get hfs -n openshift-machine-api
Edit a host’s
HostFirmwareSettings
resource:$ oc edit hfs <host_name> -n openshift-machine-api
Where
<host_name>
is the name of a provisioned host. TheHostFirmwareSettings
resource will open in the default editor for your terminal.Add name/value pairs to the
spec.settings
section:Example
spec: settings: name: value 1
- 1
- Use the
FirmwareSchema
resource to identify the available settings for the host. You cannot set values that are read-only.
- Save the changes and exit the editor.
Get the host’s machine name:
$ oc get bmh <host_name> -n openshift-machine name
Where
<host_name>
is the name of the host. The machine name appears under theCONSUMER
field.Annotate the machine to delete it from the machineset:
$ oc annotate machine <machine_name> machine.openshift.io/delete-machine=true -n openshift-machine-api
Where
<machine_name>
is the name of the machine to delete.Get a list of nodes and count the number of worker nodes:
$ oc get nodes
Get the machineset:
$ oc get machinesets -n openshift-machine-api
Scale the machineset:
$ oc scale machineset <machineset_name> -n openshift-machine-api --replicas=<n-1>
Where
<machineset_name>
is the name of the machineset and<n-1>
is the decremented number of worker nodes.When the host enters the
Available
state, scale up the machineset to make theHostFirmwareSettings
resource changes take effect:$ oc scale machineset <machineset_name> -n openshift-machine-api --replicas=<n>
Where
<machineset_name>
is the name of the machineset and<n>
is the number of worker nodes.
3.7. Verifying the HostFirmware Settings resource is valid
When the user edits the spec.settings
section to make a change to the HostFirmwareSetting
(HFS) resource, the Bare Metal Operator (BMO) validates the change against the FimwareSchema
resource, which is a read-only resource. If the setting is invalid, the BMO will set the Type
value of the status.Condition
setting to False
and also generate an event and store it in the HFS resource. Use the following procedure to verify that the resource is valid.
Procedure
Get a list of
HostFirmwareSetting
resources:$ oc get hfs -n openshift-machine-api
Verify that the
HostFirmwareSettings
resource for a particular host is valid:$ oc describe hfs <host_name> -n openshift-machine-api
Where
<host_name>
is the name of the host.Example output
Events: Type Reason Age From Message ---- ------ ---- ---- ------- Normal ValidationFailed 2m49s metal3-hostfirmwaresettings-controller Invalid BIOS setting: Setting ProcTurboMode is invalid, unknown enumeration value - Foo
ImportantIf the response returns
ValidationFailed
, there is an error in the resource configuration and you must update the values to conform to theFirmwareSchema
resource.
3.8. About the FirmwareSchema resource
BIOS settings vary among hardware vendors and host models. A FirmwareSchema
resource is a read-only resource that contains the types and limits for each BIOS setting on each host model. The data comes directly from the BMC through Ironic. The FirmwareSchema
enables you to identify valid values you can specify in the spec
field of the HostFirmwareSettings
resource. The FirmwareSchema
resource has a unique identifier derived from its settings and limits. Identical host models use the same FirmwareSchema
identifier. It is likely that multiple instances of HostFirmwareSettings
use the same FirmwareSchema
.
Parameters | Description |
---|---|
<BIOS_setting_name> attribute_type: allowable_values: lower_bound: upper_bound: min_length: max_length: read_only: unique: |
The
|
3.9. Getting the FirmwareSchema resource
Each host model from each vendor has different BIOS settings. When editing the HostFirmwareSettings
resource’s spec
section, the name/value pairs you set must conform to that host’s firmware schema. To ensure you are setting valid name/value pairs, get the FirmwareSchema
for the host and review it.
Procedure
To get a list of
FirmwareSchema
resource instances, execute the following:$ oc get firmwareschema -n openshift-machine-api
To get a particular
FirmwareSchema
instance, execute:$ oc get firmwareschema <instance_name> -n openshift-machine-api -o yaml
Where
<instance_name>
is the name of the schema instance stated in theHostFirmwareSettings
resource (see Table 3).