Matchbox

What Matchbox is

Matchbox matches bare-metal machines with profiles for network booting and cluster provisioning. It provisions Fedora CoreOS or Flatcar Linux with Ignition configuration, and can select a profile using hardware labels such as a machine’s MAC address or UUID. For booting, Matchbox supports iPXE chainloading and can render network boot configuration for iPXE and GRUB2 clients.

Clients can use HTTP endpoints or an authenticated gRPC API to create and update resources. The gRPC API uses TLS credentials for client authentication and secure communication. Terraform usage is documented, and a provider plugin is available. Matchbox can run as a Linux binary, a container image, or on a Kubernetes cluster. Poseidon also provides dnsmasq as a container for DHCP, TFTP, and DNS services.

The maker describes Matchbox for use with client machines in a lab or datacenter. It is free, open-source software and can be self-hosted on Linux. The installation guide instructs users to verify release signatures with the maker’s GPG signing key. Example Kubernetes manifests use ephemeral emptyDir storage; the guide recommends replacing that with persistent storage when available.

Who it suits

Matchbox suits administrators provisioning bare-metal client machines in a lab or datacenter, especially when they need network booting for Fedora CoreOS or Flatcar Linux. It also fits teams that want to manage resources through its APIs or Terraform provider and operate the service themselves.

Limits

The provisioning facts cover Fedora CoreOS and Flatcar Linux. The example Kubernetes manifests use ephemeral emptyDir storage, and the guide recommends persistent storage when available.

Getting started

1. Open the Matchbox project website.
2. Choose a deployment route: Linux binary, container image, or Kubernetes cluster.
3. Follow the installation guide and verify release signatures with the maker’s GPG signing key.
4. Configure profiles and hardware labels such as MAC addresses or UUIDs.
5. Set up network booting with iPXE or GRUB2 clients.
6. For Kubernetes, replace ephemeral emptyDir storage with persistent storage when available.

Verdict

Choose Matchbox to match bare-metal machines to profiles and provision Fedora CoreOS or Flatcar Linux over the network. Its free self-hosted deployment and Terraform support suit lab and datacenter setups.