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Elemental Documentation

website·Indexed 40 days ago

https://elemental.docs.rancher.com

Documentation for Elemental, including guides on installation, machine onboarding, and node upgrades. Covers technical configurations such as adding third-party RPMs, LVM volume group disks, NTP, VLANs, and static networking with nm-configurator, as well as references for SeedImageSpec, ManagedOSImageSpec, and the Elemental Operator.

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What's inside Elemental

  1. Overview of Elemental OS Management

    The Elemental stack provides OS management using OCI containers and Kubernetes. It consists of the Elemental Operator (installed in the management cluster) and installation media used to deploy the OS to cluster nodes. The registration process is handled by elemental-register, which registers nodes in a Rancher management cluster and fetches the installation configuration.

  2. Overview of Elemental OS Management

    The Elemental stack provides OS management using OCI containers and Kubernetes. It allows for the deployment of an OS to cluster nodes via a management cluster. The process involves installing the Elemental Operator into the management cluster and using installation media (Live ISO) to provision nodes. The elemental-register client is responsible for registering nodes with the Rancher management cluster and fetching installation configurations.

  3. Overview of Elemental stack installation

    The Elemental stack manages OS deployment using OCI containers and Kubernetes. The installation process involves two primary phases: installing the Elemental Operator into a management cluster and creating installation media (typically a live ISO) to deploy the OS to cluster nodes. The elemental-register client handles node registration with the Rancher management cluster and fetches the necessary installation configuration.

  4. Overview of Elemental Architecture Services

    Elemental (version 1.9) provides core functionality through two primary services: Machine Onboarding, which handles OS provisioning and registration of hosts into the Elemental Operator catalog, and Kubernetes Cluster Deployment, which manages the creation of Kubernetes clusters using those registered hosts.

  5. Overview of Declarative Networking in Elemental

    Declarative Networking in Elemental v1.8 allows for the automated assignment and configuration of network interfaces using MachineRegistration and CAPI IPAM Providers.

    Important: Declarative Networking is currently in a technology preview state and is not recommended for production environments.

    Prerequisites:

    • A DHCP server is required for the initial boot registration and machine resets (minimal lease time is acceptable).
    • An IPAM Provider (e.g., InCluster IPAM Provider) must be installed on the Rancher management cluster.
    • NetworkManager must be installed on the OS images (included by default in Elemental provided images).

  6. Overview of Declarative Networking in Elemental

    Elemental supports Declarative Networking and integration with CAPI IPAM Providers via MachineRegistration.

    Warning: Declarative Networking is currently in technology preview and is not recommended for production environments.

    Prerequisites:

    • A DHCP server is required for the initial boot registration and machine resets (minimal lease time is acceptable).
    • An IPAM Provider (e.g., InCluster IPAM Provider) must be installed on the Rancher management cluster.
    • NetworkManager must be installed on OS images (included by default in Elemental provided images).

  7. Overview of Elemental Teal customization methods

    Elemental Teal images can be customized using two primary approaches: providing additional resources within the installation media (ISO) to be used during installation or boot, or remastering the image by using a Dockerfile based on the Elemental Teal container image.

  8. Overview of the MachineRegistration resource

    The MachineRegistration resource is used to configure the registration process, provide OS installation parameters, and define enabled Elemental services for a registering machine. Once created, the Elemental Operator generates a registration URL and an associated ServiceAccount. When the Ready condition is true, target hosts can perform an HTTP GET request against this URL to retrieve a .yaml registration file, which contains the data required to start the self-registration and provisioning process.
    apiVersion: elemental.cattle.io/v1beta1
kind: MachineRegistration
metadata:
  name: my-nodes
  namespace: fleet-default
spec:
  machineName: name
  labelPrefix: elemental.cattle.io
  machineInventoryLabels:
    label: value
  machineInventoryAnnotations:
    annotation: value
  config:
    cloud-config:
        ...
    elemental:
        registration:
            ...
        install:
            ...

  9. Overview of Elemental stack installation

    The Elemental stack provides OS management using OCI containers and Kubernetes. The installation process involves deploying the Elemental Operator into a management cluster and creating installation media (Live ISO) to deploy the OS to cluster nodes. The elemental-register client handles node registration with the Rancher management cluster and fetches the necessary installation configuration.

  10. Overview of Declarative Networking in Elemental

    Declarative Networking in Elemental (v1.9) allows for automated network configuration via MachineRegistration and integration with CAPI IPAM Providers.

    Warning: Declarative Networking is currently in a technology preview state and is not recommended for production environments.

    Key Prerequisites:

    • A DHCP server is required for the initial boot registration and machine resets (minimal lease time is acceptable).
    • An IPAM Provider (e.g., InCluster IPAM Provider) must be installed on the Rancher management cluster.
    • NetworkManager must be installed on OS images (included by default in Elemental images).
    • Optional tools like nmc or nmstatectl can be used for specific network configurators.

  11. Overview of Elemental OS customization methods

    Elemental installed OS images can be customized using several non-exclusive methods depending on when the customization should take effect:

    1. Remastering Images: The preferred method is to create a new image using a Dockerfile based on SLE Micro (container OS images).
    2. Installed System Cloud-Config: Used to run custom operations at boot time within the installed system.
    3. Installation Media Cloud-Config: Used to configure the installation environment (e.g., network connectivity) or run custom logic during the installation process.
    4. Elemental Client Configuration: Customizing the install, upgrade, and reset commands via /etc/elemental/config.yaml or files in /etc/elemental/config.d.

  12. Overview of the Elemental software stack

    Elemental is a software stack built on SLE Micro for Rancher that enables centralized, cloud-native OS management using Kubernetes. It allows Rancher Manager to control the installation and management of the OS on nodes and the provisioning of K3s or RKE2 clusters.