Bare-Metal Provisioning

Modern (CRD / API-driven)

• ★ Tinkerbell (CNCF, EquinixMetal) — modern bare-metal provisioning workflow engine. PXE / iPXE-driven, declarative, k8s-friendly. The default for new bare-metal fleets.
• ★ Cluster API + Tinkerbell — provision bare-metal k8s nodes declaratively.
• Sidero Metal — Tinkerbell-shape; integrates with Talos for cluster lifecycle.

Established / mature

• ★ MAAS (Canonical) — Metal-as-a-Service; web UI; commission, deploy, lifecycle hardware. Used at scale.
• Foreman — provisioning + config management; integrates with Puppet / Ansible / Salt.
• Cobbler — older; kickstart-driven; still common.
• FAI (Fully Automatic Installation) — Debian-flavored.
• Ironic (OpenStack) — bare-metal as part of OpenStack.

Boot tooling

• PXE — classic network boot.
• iPXE — modern; HTTP / HTTPS / chainload; scriptable. Default for new setups.
• netboot.xyz — community-curated boot menu; great for labs.
• GRUB / systemd-boot / Limine — bootloaders post-provision.

Hardware management

• IPMI / Redfish — out-of-band management; power on/off, console, sensors.
• freeipmi / ipmitool — CLI for IPMI.
• Redfish API — modern REST replacement for IPMI.
• OpenBMC — open-source BMC firmware.

Inventory / discovery

• NetBox — IPAM + DCIM; track every server, IP, rack.
• DCIM-lite alternatives: RackTables, Phpipam.
• OpenDCIM — older.
• Steampipe + cloud accounts — query "what do we actually have?"

OS choice for bare metal

• Talos / Bottlerocket / Flatcar — see Container Host OS.
• Ubuntu / Debian / Rocky / Alma — boring, fine.
• Proxmox VE — for hypervisor / VM hosts.
• TrueNAS Scale — for NAS-with-containers boxes.

Cabling / out-of-band

• Tailscale on the IPMI VLAN — gives you encrypted access to BMCs without exposing them publicly.
• Console servers (Lantronix, Opengear) — for serial-out-of-band on real datacenter racks.

When you actually need this

• You own physical servers (colocated or on-site).
• A homelab beyond mini-PCs.
• A fleet at the scale where cloud cost is no longer the cheapest option.

When you don't

• Cloud-native or hosted-everywhere — your provider provisions hardware.
• Single VPS — provider handles it.
• 1–3 mini-PCs at home — install OS manually; cloud-init from a USB stick.

Patterns to adopt

• ★ Inventory in code. NetBox + Terraform or tinkctl manifests. Don't keep "the truth" in a spreadsheet.
• PXE chainload iPXE for fast, scriptable, modern boot.
• Out-of-band on a separate VLAN. Never expose IPMI to the public internet.
• Cluster API for scale. When you have 20+ machines, doing it by hand is a job.

Pick this if…

• Default modern bare-metal: Tinkerbell (+ Cluster API for k8s).
• Mature single-pane UI: MAAS.
• Old shop with kickstart heritage: Cobbler.
• Provisioning + Puppet integration: Foreman.
• Inventory: NetBox.