OpenStack Ironic

What OpenStack Ironic is

OpenStack Ironic provisions physical, bare-metal machines. It can run as a standalone service or as part of an OpenStack cloud, and manages hardware using common protocols such as PXE and IPMI alongside vendor-specific remote management protocols. Its documented hardware lifecycle covers inspection, deployment, cleaning, adoption, retirement, RAID and BIOS configuration, firmware updates and rescue.

Ironic supports several deployment arrangements: standalone, OpenStack without Nova, or a full OpenStack deployment with Nova and Placement. The standalone scenario is described for one to hundreds of nodes, but it does not provide multi-tenancy. Ironic integrates with OpenStack Identity (Keystone), Compute (Nova), Network (Neutron), Image (Glance) and Object (Swift). API authentication and authorization use Keystone and a Secure RBAC model.

Ironic is free and the OpenStack project is licensed under Apache 2.0. By default, provisioned nodes use a flat network, without safeguards against tenant interactions; integrating OpenStack services can provide tenant-network isolation. Default cleaning erases local drives after instance deletion, but does not reset BIOS, reflash firmware or erase peripheral devices. Operators are advised to assess and secure their own environments.

Who it suits

Ironic suits operators provisioning bare-metal hardware, whether in a standalone deployment or as part of OpenStack. Its lifecycle tools cover hardware preparation through retirement, while its documented integrations support deployments using other OpenStack services.

Limits

The standalone deployment scenario is listed for one to hundreds of nodes but does not provide multi-tenancy. By default, nodes use a flat network, and disk cleaning does not reset BIOS, reflash firmware or erase peripheral devices.

Getting started

1. Open the Ironic documentation website
2. Choose a documented standalone, OpenStack without Nova, or full OpenStack deployment scenario
3. Configure hardware access using supported common or vendor-specific remote management protocols
4. Use Keystone for API authentication and authorization
5. Integrate OpenStack services if tenant-network isolation is needed

Verdict

Choose Ironic if you need to provision physical machines and manage their hardware lifecycle, either independently or alongside OpenStack services. Look elsewhere if your deployment requires standalone multi-tenancy, or account for additional network isolation and cleanup needs in your environment.