ironic/doc/source/deploy/cleaning.rst

Node cleaning

Overview

When hardware is recycled from one workload to another, ironic performs cleaning on the node to ensure it's ready for another workload. This ensures the tenant will get a consistent bare metal node deployed every time.

Ironic implements cleaning by collecting a list of steps to perform on a node from each Power, Deploy, and Management driver assigned to the node. These steps are then arranged by priority and executed on the node when it is moved to cleaning state, if cleaning is enabled.

Typically, nodes move to cleaning state when moving from active -> available. Nodes also traverse cleaning when going from manageable -> available. For a full understanding of all state transitions into cleaning, please see states.

Ironic added support for cleaning nodes in the Kilo release.

Enabling cleaning

To enable cleaning, ensure your ironic.conf is set as follows: :

[conductor]
automated_clean=true

This will enable the default set of steps, based on your hardware and ironic drivers. If you're using an agent* driver, this includes, by default, erasing all of the previous tenant's data.

If you are using the Neutron DHCP provider (the default) you will also need to ensure you have configured a cleaning network. This network will be used to boot the ramdisk for in-band cleaning. You can use the same network as your tenant network. For steps to set up the cleaning network, please see CleaningNetworkSetup.

In-band vs out-of-band

Ironic uses two main methods to perform actions on a node: in-band and out-of-band. Ironic supports using both methods to clean a node.

In-band

In-band steps are performed by ironic making API calls to a ramdisk running on the node using a Deploy driver. Currently, only the ironic-python-agent ramdisk used with an agent* driver supports in-band cleaning. By default, ironic-python-agent ships with a minimal cleaning configuration, only erasing disks. However, with this ramdisk, you can add your own cleaning steps and/or override default cleaning steps with a custom Hardware Manager.

There is currently no support for in-band cleaning using the ironic pxe ramdisk.

Out-of-band

Out-of-band are actions performed by your management controller, such as IPMI, iLO, or DRAC. Out-of-band steps will be performed by ironic using a Power or Management driver. Which steps are performed depends on the driver and hardware.

For Out-of-Band cleaning operations supported by iLO drivers, refer to ilo_node_cleaning.

FAQ

How are cleaning steps ordered?

Cleaning steps are ordered by integer priority, where a larger integer is a higher priority. In case of a conflict between priorities across drivers, the following resolution order is used: Power, Management, Deploy.

How do I skip a cleaning step?

Cleaning steps with a priority of 0 or None are skipped.

How do I change the priority of a cleaning step?

Most out-of-band cleaning steps have an explicit configuration option for priority.

Changing the priority of an in-band (ironic-python-agent) cleaning step currently requires use of a custom HardwareManager. The only exception is erase_devices, which can have its priority set in ironic.conf. For instance, to disable erase_devices, you'd use the following config:

[deploy]
erase_devices_priority=0

To enable/disable the in-band disk erase using agent_ilo driver, use the following config:

[ilo]
clean_priority_erase_devices=0

Generic hardware manager first tries to perform ATA disk erase by using hdparm utility. If ATA disk erase is not supported, it performs software based disk erase using shred utility. By default, the number of iterations performed by shred for software based disk erase is 1. To configure the number of iterations, use the following config:

[deploy]
erase_devices_iterations=1

What cleaning step is running?

To check what cleaning step the node is performing or attempted to perform and failed, either query the node endpoint for the node or run ironic node-show $node_ident and look in the internal_driver_info field. The clean_steps field will contain a list of all remaining steps with their priority, and the first one listed is the step currently in progress or that the node failed before going into cleanfail state.

Should I disable cleaning?

Cleaning is recommended for ironic deployments, however, there are some tradeoffs to having it enabled. For instance, ironic cannot deploy a new instance to a node that is currently cleaning, and cleaning can be a time consuming process. To mitigate this, we suggest using disks with support for cryptographic ATA Security Erase, as typically the erase_devices step in the deploy driver takes the longest time to complete of all cleaning steps.

Why can't I power on/off a node while it's cleaning?

During cleaning, nodes may be performing actions that shouldn't be interrupted, such as BIOS or Firmware updates. As a result, operators are forbidden from changing power state via the ironic API while a node is cleaning.

Troubleshooting

If cleaning fails on a node, the node will be put into cleanfail state and placed in maintenance mode, to prevent ironic from taking actions on the node.

Nodes in cleanfail will not be powered off, as the node might be in a state such that powering it off could damage the node or remove useful information about the nature of the cleaning failure.

A cleanfail node can be moved to manageable state, where they cannot be scheduled by nova and you can safely attempt to fix the node. To move a node from cleanfail to manageable: ironic node-set-provision-state manage. You can now take actions on the node, such as replacing a bad disk drive.

Strategies for determining why a cleaning step failed include checking the ironic conductor logs, viewing logs on the still-running ironic-python-agent (if an in-band step failed), or performing general hardware troubleshooting on the node.

When the node is repaired, you can move the node back to available state, to allow it to be scheduled by nova.

# First, move it out of maintenance mode
ironic node-set-maintenance $node_ident false

# Now, make the node available for scheduling by nova
ironic node-set-provision-state $node_ident provide

The node will begin cleaning from the start, and move to available state when complete.