Introduction
With technological expansion, businesses constantly seek new alternatives to improve the IT infrastructure. Out of numerous solutions, bare metal provisioning stands out because of its advanced performance, security and customization abilities.
Are you looking for ways to manage your computing or gaming applications? Bare metal provisioning can be a game-changer that can handle everything effortlessly and simplify your business workflow. Bare metal provisioning makes it easy to use completely dedicated servers without the virtualization overhead, providing high-end performance.
Let’s delve through the blog to know more about bare metal, bare metal servers, bare metal provisioning, its benefits and tools for bare metal provisioning!
What is Bare Metal Provisioning?
Bare metal provisioning is the process of setting up and configuring a physical server for running applications. However, it refers to the automatic deployment of software, and operating systems directly onto the physical servers. As a result, it minimizes human efforts, saves time and reduces the chances of error. Ideal for organizations that require high performance, low latency and complete access to their IT environment.
Steps for Bare Metal Provisioning
The bare metal server provisioning process includes the following steps:
1. Identify the Hardware
Check the available servers and get their hardware configuration details like RAM, storage, etc.
2. Bootstrapping
Boot the server using a network-based method like PXE or UEFI.
3. Operating System Installation
Get the desired operating system installed on the server, either from a pre-configured image or installed from scratch.
4. Configuration
Ensure that the server is configured after the installation of the operating system. It involves configuring settings such as network settings, user accounts, security settings and hardware settings, etc.
5. Deployment
After the basic setup, the applications and services can be deployed to the server. It mainly includes installing software packages, setting up database, web servers and configuring the application code.
6. Validation & Testing
Carry out manual or automated testing to ensure the system is fully functional and works effectively.
Benefits of Bare Metal Provisioning
Bare metal provisioning offers a couple of benefits, especially for those required to have high-performance computing environments. Let’s explore some of the top benefits of bare metal provisioning!
- Robust Performance
Usually, the bare metal servers are provided with dedicated servers to avoid performance issues caused by hypervisor overheads or shared workloads. They are ideal for solid computing applications like machine learning, and data-intensive workloads, hence maintaining consistent performance.
- Advanced Security
In remote bare-metal provisioning, the servers are shared with a dedicated user, eliminating the risk associated with the shared environment. This offers complete separation and isolation for sensitive workloads. Bare metal servers are used in industries such as health care, financial services, etc., where security is of prime concern.
- Customization
It possesses complete access and control over the server and flexibility to configure it to meet the needs of your application. One can be flexible in selecting the operating system, applications, hardware components and much more.
- Scalability
Automating bare-metal provisioning tools facilitates easy deployment of additional servers, satisfying the growing demands. In addition to that, it even allows to scale physical infrastructure, hence achieving consistent results.
- Cost-Effective
The bare metal servers are more costly than the virtualized solutions but provide top-notch performance and efficiency over time.
Disadvantages of Bare Metal Provisioning
Inspite of several benefits, bare-metal provisioning has many disadvantages that cannot be overlooked.
- Complexity
Managing a bare metal server seems to be challenging as well as complicated. It requires adequate provisioning knowledge and hardware maintenance. It seems a bit complicated for those with limited resources or no technical knowledge.
- Time-Consuming
Configuring bare metal servers is time-consuming as compared to virtualization. Whereas, the provisioning tools can improve the speed but may require more time to set up the physical servers as it can cause delays when configuring the new applications.
- Hardware Dependency
The hardware dependency for bare metal servers is comparatively much more. As any hardware failure or additional maintenance tasks can cause downtime errors and increase operational costs.
Basic Working of Automated Bare Metal Provisioning
Cantech’s bare metal provisioning process can be simplified into key steps which are specified below!
Network Boot
The physical server connects to a provisioning network and loads a boot image via PXE or similar protocols.
Bootloader Execution
A bootloader (e.g., GRUB) is executed to load the installation scripts or operating system kernel.
Operating System Installation
The provisioning tool installs the OS and configures system settings.
Post-Installation Configuration
Configuration management scripts customize the system for its intended purpose. This includes setting up networking, storage, and security.
Validation and Integration
The provisioned server is placed in the global IT environment for validation to ensure performance and security standards.
Top 5 Bare Metal Provisioning Tools
Metal as a Service (MAAS)
MAAS, an open-source solution, is best known for quick provisioning for your data center. Here, the metal server acts as a virtualized cloud machine, thus facilitating the management of multiple machines simultaneously.
Features:
- Simple dashboard & API for flawless hardware management.
- Supports multiple operating systems.
- Facilitates managing KVM hosts using the graphical user interface.
- Offers role-based user permissions.
OpenStack Ironic
Ironic is an OpenStack cloud computing platform that is specially designed to manage bare metal infrastructure. It even provides support for vendor-specific plugins, which helps in the easy integration of additional features.
Features:
- Supports hardware discovery and bare metal deployment.
- Provides automated server provisioning.
- Easy integration with OpenStack services.
Cobbler
The Linux provisioning server, Cobbler, assists in automating the provisioning of bare metal servers. It mainly supports Linux distributions, hence making it easier to manage system profiles, post-install scripts and much more.
Features:
- Ensured compatibility with Linux and Windows environments.
- Manages DNS and DHCP, package management and power management.
- Best for small-to-medium sized businesses with feasible pricing structure.
Foreman
It is an all-in-one lifecycle management tool for physical and virtual servers. The admin has complete control to carry out the repetitive tasks, carry out deployment and easily manage servers, either on-premise or in the cloud.
Features:
- Flawless integration with tools like Puppet, Salt, etc.
- Allows easy management of hybrid cloud using Foreman.
- Provides robust plugins to leverage additional features.
Red Hat Satellite
Red Hat Satellite facilitates easy management of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment. Moreover, it helps maintain consistency, eliminate errors and satisfy compliance standards.
Features:
- Flawless infrastructure management.
- Designed to meet the Enterprise Linux environment.
- Helps manage thousands of distributed systems.
Conclusion
Looking to manage your high-end computing applications effortlessly? Then, bare metal provisioning is the ultimate solution to manage all your high-performance physical servers. Additionally, leveraging bare metal provisioning tools can automate deployment, boost efficiency and maintain solid IT infrastructure.
Implementing appropriate strategies and tools might help businesses to manage physical servers easily, hence accomplishing superior performance, and improved security at best prices.
FAQs
What is Bare Metal?
A bare metal can be defined as a physical computer or server that operates without any operating system. Moreover, bare metal even signifies that the hardware resources are dedicated to a single user, without sharing with any other tenants.
What is a Bare Metal Server?
A physical server dedicated entirely to a single user can be termed as a bare metal server. Here, the users have complete access to the hardware and operate without a virtualization layer.
What is a Bare Metal Hypervisor?
A bare metal hypervisor, more commonly referred to as a Type 1 hypervisor. It is a virtualization software that doesn’t require an operating system and can be operated easily using the computer hardware.
What is the role of bare metal provisioning in IT infrastructure?
Bare metal provisioning plays a significant role in conducting automated deployment of hardware for superior performance workloads, and even for data center management.
What is Bare Metal Programming?
Bare metal programming is a writing software that runs directly on hardware without having any dependencies on the operating system. As a result, one can easily interact with hardware components like CPU, memory and many more.
What are the Basic Steps Involved in The Process of Bare Metal Provisioning?
The key steps involved in the process of bare metal provisioning are as follows:
- Determine the hardware
- Bootstrapping
- Operating system installation
- Configuration
- Deployment
- Validation & Testing
What are the Benefits of Bare Metal Provisioning?
The top benefits of bare metal provisioning are as follows:
- Robust performance: Bare metal provisioning helps offer optimum performance by proper usage of hardware resources without virtualization overhead.
- Advanced Security: Ensures utmost security by isolating workloads on a single user.
- Customization: Bare metal provisioning provides complete access to hardware, operating systems and applications based on their needs.
- Feasible Pricing: The cost associated is reduced with elimination of virtualization layers and by proper usage of resources for high-performance tasks.
Explain the Basic Difference Between Bare Metal and Hosted Hypervisor.
A bare metal hypervisor runs on physical hardware without using an operating system and acts as the host and the manager for the virtual machines. Whereas, the hosted hypervisor operates on an existing operating system and utilizes it for the interaction with the hardware. Moreover, both the bare metal and hosted hypervisor ensures scalability, security and flexibility.
