Configure advanced hardware management | Infrastructure and cluster lifecycle management

Template reuse strategies
Select hosts by hardware specifications
Override hardware profiles for each deployment site
Provision with hardware overrides using the Provisioning API

After provisioning clusters with a basic template, you can configure advanced hardware management to control how the O-Cloud Manager selects hosts, applies hardware profiles, and handles specific site variation. This includes defining resource selectors with hardware data criteria in the ClusterTemplate CR and overriding template defaults in the ProvisioningRequest CR for individual deployment sites.

You can perform these operations by editing the ProvisioningRequest CR directly or through the Provisioning REST API. For more information about advanced provisioning with the Provisioning API, see "Provision with hardware overrides using the Provisioning API".

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Template reuse strategies

Every ClusterTemplate CR defines base hardware requirements in its hwMgmtDefaults section, including node groups, roles, and resource selectors that the O-Cloud Manager uses to automatically select hosts from the available pool. When you deploy the same template across multiple sites, you can use the following approaches for handling hardware variation.

Define hardware selection in the template: Use the hwMgmtDefaults section of the ClusterTemplate CR to specify node groups and resource selectors. This is the base configuration that applies to all clusters provisioned with this template. You can use label selectors, hardwaredata/ selectors, or both to match hosts. For details, see "Select hosts by hardware specifications".
Override template defaults for each site: Use this approach when deployments share the same cluster topology, OKD release version, and Day 2 configuration policies but differ in hardware at each site, such as server model, firmware profile, or rack location. The ProvisioningRequest CR supplies site-specific values in hwMgmtParameters that override the ClusterTemplate CR’s hwMgmtDefaults at provisioning time. This avoids creating a separate template for every site. For details, see "Override hardware profiles for each deployment site".
Create a new ClusterTemplate CR: Use this approach when deployments differ in cluster topology (single-node versus multi-node), node count, OKD release version, or Day 2 policy configuration. These structural differences require a separate template because they affect installation flow, ConfigMap defaults, or policy rendering beyond what hardware overrides can address.

ClusterTemplate CRs and their referenced ConfigMap CRs are immutable after validation by the O-Cloud Manager. To change hwMgmtDefaults or any other template default, you must create a new ClusterTemplate CR version and update the ProvisioningRequest CR to reference it.

Select hosts by hardware specifications

You can define the base hardware selection criteria in a ClusterTemplate CR using the resourceSelector field in hwMgmtDefaults specification.

The resourceSelector field supports both label selectors that match BareMetalHost CR labels and hardwaredata/ selectors that match against the inspected HardwareData CR for physical characteristics such as CPU, memory, NICs, and storage devices. You can use either or both together. This base configuration applies to all clusters provisioned with this template unless overridden with the hwMgmtParameters field in the ProvisioningRequest CR.

Prerequisites

The O-Cloud Manager Operator is installed on the hub cluster.
Bare-metal servers are onboarded and their HardwareData CRs are populated by Bare Metal Operator inspection.
If your template references HardwareProfile CRs, those CRs must exist in the O-Cloud Manager Operator namespace ,oran-o2ims, regardless of the namespace where the ClusterTemplate CR is stored.

Procedure

Define the resourceSelector in your ClusterTemplate CR’s hwMgmtDefaults.nodeGroupData[] entry to include hardware data criteria. The following example selects hosts with at least 64 CPU threads, 128 GiB RAM, four 25 Gbps NICs, and two NVMe storage devices:
```
# ...
spec:
  templateDefaults:
    hwMgmtDefaults:
      nodeGroupData:
        - name: controller
          role: master
          resourceSelector:
            server-type: dell-xr8620t
            hardwaredata/cpu_model;substring;icase: "Xeon"
            hardwaredata/num_threads;gte: "64"
            hardwaredata/ramMebibytes;gte: "131072"
            hardwaredata/nics;speedGbps>=25;count>=4: "present"
            hardwaredata/storage;type==NVME;count>=2: "present"
# ...
```
where:
server-type: dell-xr8620t

A label selector. Short keys without a domain prefix are automatically expanded to resourceselector.clcm.openshift.io/server-type. The label must exist on the BareMetalHost CR’s metadata.labels. You can use fully qualified keys such as resourceselector.clcm.openshift.io/server-colour directly.

hardwaredata/cpu_model;substring;icase: "Xeon"
A string field selector with qualifiers. The hardwaredata/ prefix indicates matching against the HardwareData CR. Available string fields:
productname - system product name

manufacturer - system manufacturer

cpu_arch - CPU architecture such as x86_64 or arm64

cpu_model - CPU model string
hardwaredata/num_threads;gte: "64"
An integer field selector with a comparison operator. Available integer fields:
num_threads - CPU thread count

ramMebibytes - RAM size in mebibytes

All values must be quoted strings.
hardwaredata/nics;speedGbps>=25;count>=4: "present"
A NIC compound selector. NIC criteria use the hardwaredata/nics prefix followed by semicolon-separated sub-criteria. The value must always be "present". Available NIC sub-criteria:
model - NIC model string

speedGbps - NIC speed in Gbps

count - number of NICs matching the other sub-criteria

When model or speedGbps are specified, they filter the NIC set first. The count sub-criterion is then evaluated against the filtered subset.
hardwaredata/storage;type==NVME;count>=2: "present"
A storage compound selector. Storage criteria use the hardwaredata/storage prefix followed by semicolon-separated sub-criteria. The value must always be "present". Available storage sub-criteria:
type - storage type: NVME, SSD, or HDD

model - device model string

vendor - device vendor string

name - device name or alternate name

sizeBytes - device size in bytes

count - number of devices matching the other sub-criteria

All criteria within a resourceSelector must match for a BareMetalHost CR to be selected. Only hosts in the Available provisioning state are evaluated.
Apply the ClusterTemplate CR to the hub cluster, or commit it to the GitOps repository for ArgoCD synchronization.

Verification

Verify that the ClusterTemplate passes validation by running the following command:
```
$ oc get clustertemplates.clcm.openshift.io -A
```
A STATE of Completed confirms that the template and its resource selector configuration are valid.

Override hardware profiles for each deployment site

When deployments share the same cluster topology but differ in hardware at each site, you can use a single ClusterTemplate CR across multiple deployment sites by overriding the template’s hwMgmtDefaults in each ProvisioningRequest CR. The hwMgmtParameters field in the ProvisioningRequest supplies site-specific values such as server model, firmware profile, or resource selector criteria, which avoids creating a separate template for every site.

Prerequisites

The O-Cloud Manager Operator is installed on the hub cluster.
A validated ClusterTemplate CR exists with hwMgmtParameters defined in its templateParameterSchema.
Bare-metal servers at the target site are onboarded with labels matching the override criteria.

Procedure

Ensure the ClusterTemplate CR includes hwMgmtParameters in the templateParameterSchema to permit overrides. The following snippet shows the required schema section for this example:

# ...
spec:
  templateParameterSchema:
    properties:
      hwMgmtParameters:
        properties:
          hardwareProvisioningTimeout:
            type: string
          nodeGroupData:
            items:
              properties:
                name:
                  type: string
                hwProfile:
                  type: string
                resourceSelector:
                  type: object
                  additionalProperties:
                    type: string
              required:
                - name
              type: object
            type: array
        type: object
# ...

The hwMgmtParameters schema defines which fields a ProvisioningRequest CR can override. Only fields declared in the schema are accepted during validation.

Create a ProvisioningRequest CR that includes hwMgmtParameters in templateParameters to override the template defaults for this site, for example:

apiVersion: clcm.openshift.io/v1alpha1
kind: ProvisioningRequest
metadata:
  name: a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890
spec:
  name: site-boston-rack3
  description: "Cluster for Boston site using local server model"
  templateName: sno-ran-du
  templateVersion: v4-Y-Z-1
  templateParameters:
    nodeClusterName: boston-sno1
    oCloudSiteId: site-boston-rack3
    hwMgmtParameters:
      hardwareProvisioningTimeout: "120m"
      nodeGroupData:
        - name: controller
          hwProfile: rh-profile-xr8620t-bios-settings
          resourceSelector:
            server-type: dell-xr8620t
    clusterInstanceParameters:
      clusterName: boston-sno1
      baseDomain: boston.example.com
      nodes:
        - hostName: boston-sno1.boston.example.com
    policyTemplateParameters:
      cpu-isolated: "2-63"
      cpu-reserved: "0-1"

where:

hwMgmtParameters.hardwareProvisioningTimeout

Overrides the timeout duration for hardware provisioning at this site. If not specified, the value from the ClusterTemplate CR’s hwMgmtDefaults section applies.

hwMgmtParameters.nodeGroupData[].name

Identifies the node group to override. This value must match the name field of a node group in the template’s hwMgmtDefaults.nodeGroupData[]. Node groups are matched by name.

hwMgmtParameters.nodeGroupData[].hwProfile

Overrides the HardwareProfile CR for this node group at this site. For example, a site with Dell XR8620t servers uses a different firmware profile than a site with HPE DL110 servers.

hwMgmtParameters.nodeGroupData[].resourceSelector

Overrides or adds resource selector criteria for this node group. The O-Cloud Manager merges these values with the base selectors from the ClusterTemplate CR using the following rules:

Override values replace existing values for the same key.
New keys in the override are added to the base configuration.
Existing keys not present in the override are preserved unchanged.

Keys cannot be removed from the base template through an override.

When both the ClusterTemplate CR and the ProvisioningRequest CR specify the same field, the ProvisioningRequest value takes precedence.

Node groups in the override that do not match any existing group by name are appended as new groups. This supports scaling scenarios where a ProvisioningRequest CR adds a worker node group not defined in the template defaults.

Apply the ProvisioningRequest CR to the hub cluster, or commit it to the GitOps repository for ArgoCD synchronization.

Verification

Verify that the provisioning request is accepted and progressing by running the following command:
```
$ oc get provisioningrequests.clcm.openshift.io a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890
```
A provisioningPhase of fulfilled indicates that the overridden hardware profile and resource selector were applied successfully and the cluster provisioning completed.

Provision with hardware overrides using the Provisioning API

You can provision a cluster with per-site hardware overrides through the Provisioning REST API by including hwMgmtParameters in the POST request body.

Prerequisites

You authenticated to the O-Cloud Manager REST API and set the MY_TOKEN environment variable.
A validated ClusterTemplate CR exists with hwMgmtParameters defined in the templateParameterSchema.
Bare-metal servers matching the override resourceSelector criteria are onboarded.

Procedure

Get the O-Cloud Manager API hostname by running the following command:

$ export API_HOST=$(oc get routes -n oran-o2ims -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.host}')

Set the Provisioning API base URL by running the following command:

$ export PROV_URL="https://${API_HOST}/O2ims_infrastructureProvisioning/v1"

Create a provisioning request with hardware overrides by running the following command:

$ curl -ks -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${MY_TOKEN}" \
  "${PROV_URL}/provisioningRequests" \
  -d @provisioning-request.json | jq

The following example shows a provisioning-request.json file with hwMgmtParameters that override the template defaults:

{
  "name": "sno-site-a-provisioning-request",
  "description": "SNO RAN DU cluster at site-a",
  "provisioningRequestId": "<uuid>",
  "templateName": "sno-ran-du",
  "templateVersion": "v4-Y-Z-1",
  "templateParameters": {
    "nodeClusterName": "sno-site-a",
    "oCloudSiteId": "site-a",
    "hwMgmtParameters": {
      "hardwareProvisioningTimeout": "120m",
      "nodeGroupData": [
        {
          "name": "controller",
          "hwProfile": "rh-profile-xr8620t-bios-settings",
          "resourceSelector": {
            "server-type": "dell-xr8620t",
            "location": "rack-3"
          }
        }
      ]
    },
    "clusterInstanceParameters": {
      "clusterName": "sno-site-a",
      "baseDomain": "site-a.example.com",
      "nodes": [
        { "hostName": "sno1.site-a.example.com" }
      ]
    },
    "policyTemplateParameters": {
      "cpu-isolated": "2-63",
      "cpu-reserved": "0-1"
    }
  }
}

The hwMgmtParameters values override the hwMgmtDefaults defined in the ClusterTemplate CR.
Only fields included in the template’s templateParameterSchema are accepted.

The resourceSelector labels in hwMgmtParameters replace (not merge with) the template defaults for the specified node group.

The provisioningRequestId must be a valid UUID. The O-Cloud Manager validates the supplied hwMgmtParameters against the schema defined in the referenced ClusterTemplate CR before starting provisioning.

Verification

Query the provisioning request status and verify that provisioning starts by running the following command:
```
$ curl -ks -H "Authorization: Bearer ${MY_TOKEN}" \
  "${PROV_URL}/provisioningRequests/<uuid>" | jq -r '.status.provisioningPhase'
```
The provisioningPhase transitions from pending to progressing as hardware provisioning begins, and reaches fulfilled when the cluster is fully provisioned and configured.