1. Bringing Cloud Native Architecture to Physical Infrastructure
Rob Hirschfeld (CEO) & Greg Althaus (CTO)
November, 2017

2. 2
An eight year history building physical automation
Learned many DevOps lessons in the field
then created first OpenStack installer: “Crowbar”
1)
2)
Rob Hirschfeld
Greg Althaus

3. 3
Lack of hardware integratation reduces flexibility, increases costs
Provision
displacing
Control
displacing
Orchestrate
co-exist
Platforms
collaborative
INTEGRATION GAP

4. 4
Don’t replace good orchestration tools and platforms!
But, let’s make those tools work for physical and cloud
Provision
displacing
Control
displacing
Orchestrate
co-exist
Platforms
collaborative

5. 5
RackN provides unified management and automation packages
Digital Rebar is open source, on-premises provisioning endpoint

6. 6
Configuration packages are
composable so that sites can
combine shared, commercial and
custom automation.
Architectured to have sharable
components that can centrally
validated then field upgraded.

7. 7
Rack
PXE
DR Provision handles boot requests
using native O/S installers.
DR Agent
● runs post-provision scripts
without SSH.
● can stream images to disk.
● hands off to other agents like
Chef, Puppet or Ansible if needed.
Server
Server
Server
Server
Server
O/S Kick
Provision
Service
AgentPost
Register / Run

8. 8
Provides all core provisioning protocols
from a single executable.
Small enough to run embedded in a switch,
and can scale to 1000s of machines.
Configured via REST API with a 12-factor
design pattern.
Self-contained. No external dependencies.
Digital Rebar Provision Service
Core Services:
*DHCP or Provision services are optional depending
on configuration requirements.
API / UI
Service API (/api/v3)
UI Redirect (/ui)8092/tcp
DHCP*:
Address Management
Next Boot Services67/udp
PROVISION*:
PXE Boot Images
Dynamic Templates
Static Files
Config
Data
File
System69/udp
8091/tcp
TFTP
HTTPS
DHCP
HTTP
No External
Database
Required

9. 9
Centered on Open Source Provisioning
Building management tools and integration ecosystem
Down Stack
Hardware
Integrations
Up Stack
Platform
Integrations
RackN
Support
Multi-Site
Syncronizer
RackN
Self-Service
Portal
Open
Digital
Rebar
Community Content
Packages
Advanced Content
Packages

10. The hardware automation problem
is NOT the lack of provisioning…

12. 12
Provisioning
System
Requested
State
Returned
State

13. 13
Provision requests are for a system state
with optional parameters.
The intermediate changes to achieve the
state are not exposed to the requester.
Operators of the provisioning system
require high transparency, staged
operation and control.
Provisioning
System
Reset Join
Install
Config
Test
Requested
State
Returned
State

14. 14
Physical Server
reboot
reboot
New
Server
RAM BOOT
Discovery &
Inventory
DISK BOOT
Production
O/S
RAM BOOT
Clean &
Recover
Install O/S
Kickstart
Template
Control
Tasks &
Plugins
Provision
DHCP, PXE
& Register
Control
Tasks &
Plugins
Provision
DHCP, PXE
& Register
Provision
DHCP, PXE
& Register
O/S Install ImageDiscovery Image Recovery Image

15. 15
Digital Rebar Scaffold
Distributed On-Premises
Discover Customer
Burn-In
Install
Chain Next
RAID &
BIOS
Chain Next
Post-
Provision
Hand OffChain Next Chain Next

16. 16
Digital Rebar Scaffold
Distributed On-Premises
Discover Customer
Burn-In
Install
Register
Inventory
Log
Notify
Verify
Alert
Ops Ticket
Reset
Chain Next
Install
Network
Grant SSH
Notify
RAID &
BIOS
Inventory
BIOS
RAID
IPMI
Chain Next
Post-
Provision
Grant SSH
Secure
CMDB
Notify
Hand OffChain Next Chain Next

17. 17
Digital Rebar Scaffold
Distributed On-Premises
Discover Customer
Burn-In
Install
Register
Inventory
Log
Notify
Verify
Alert
Ops Ticket
Reset
Chain Next
Install
Network
Grant SSH
Notify
RAID &
BIOS
Inventory
BIOS
RAID
IPMI
Chain Next
Post-
Provision
Grant SSH
Secure
CMDB
Notify
Hand OffChain Next Chain Next
Specialized
Actions
Disabled
Features
Proprietary
Content Partner
Integrations
Customized
Functionality

18. 18
New
Servers
Digital Rebar
Discover & Inventory
Digital Rebar
Reconfigure Servers
Terraform Create
Request Servers
Terraform Destroy
Release Servers
Digital Rebar
Reconfigure Servers
Server
Pool
Server
Pool
Server
Pool
1
3
2
4
5
7
6 9
8
A

19. 19
New
Servers
Digital Rebar
Discover & Inventory
Digital Rebar
Reconfigure Servers
Terraform Create
Request Servers
Terraform Destroy
Release Servers
Digital Rebar
Reconfigure Servers
Server
Pool
Server
Pool
Server
Pool
1
3
2
4
5
7
6 9
8
A

20. using Terraform Provision
https://youtu.be/6MLyUVgnVo4

21. 21
Rack
PXE DR Provision handles boot
requests using native O/S
installers.
DR Agent
● runs post-provision scripts
without SSH.
● can stream images to disk.
● hands off to other agents like
Chef, Puppet or Ansible if
needed.
Server
Server
Server
Server
Server
O/S Kick
Provision
Service
AgentPost
Register / Run

22. 22
Provision then Configure/Upgrade
Base O/S
Configuration Tooling
App0
App1
AppN
...
Provision then Destroy then Provision
Hardware Config
O/S0
Init0
App0
H/W0
O/S1
Init1
App1
H/W1
O/SN
InitN
AppN
H/WN
...

23. 23
Provision then Destroy then Provision
Faster and more predictable (CI/CD)
Matches cloud and container patterns
Is more portable between environments
O/S0
Init0
App0
H/W0
O/S1
Init1
App1
H/W1
O/SN
InitN
AppN
H/WN
...