Confluent is software for bootstrapping and operating groups of servers, including operating-system deployment, hardware control, console management, telemetry, and device onboarding. It supports clusters from a handful of nodes to many thousands on x86_64 and aarch64 architectures. It provisions stateful and stateless images through PXE, HTTP(S) boot, or virtual media, with customization during deployment. Devices can be discovered through generic PXE systems or hardware managers and onboarded by serial number, MAC address, switch port, or physical location. Hardware management includes power, boot selection, BIOS/UEFI/BMC settings, RAID, health checks, telemetry, virtual media, and support data through IPMI, Redfish, and vendor plugins. Operators can use Linux commands, a command-line browser, a Python client, a web UI, or a REST API. Collective mode connects servers behind one interface for high availability and scale-out operation. Confluent is free under the Apache 2.0 license. Management server installation is documented for Enterprise Linux 8.6 or higher, SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP4 or higher, and Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04. Firewall changes may be required for HTTPS and, depending on deployment, network boot ports.
Who it is for
Confluent suits administrators managing server clusters and their operating-system deployment, hardware, and console access. The documentation recommends installing it directly for most users; users relying on xCAT-exclusive features can run both together.
What is good
- Supports clusters from a handful of nodes to many thousands.
- Deploys stateful and stateless images using several boot methods.
- Provides hardware management through IPMI, Redfish, and plugins.
- Offers command-line, Python, web, and REST interfaces.
- Free under the Apache 2.0 license.
What to know first
- Installation requires a listed supported management-server OS.
- Firewall settings may need adjustment.
- xCAT-exclusive features may require running both projects.
Verdict
Confluent covers server provisioning, hardware operations, and cluster management through several interfaces. Check the documented management-server OS and firewall requirements before deployment.
Compared on bare metal provisioning software
- Free plan
- Yes
- Bare-metal discovery
- Yes
- OS image deployment
- Yes
- PXE bootstrapping
- Yes
- Lifecycle management
- Yes
- Hardware inventory
- Yes
- API access
- Yes
- Out-of-band management
- Yes
