This site will be decommissioned on December 31st 2024. After that date content will be available at techdocs.broadcom.com.

 

VMware Bare Metal Automation for VMware Telco Cloud Platform 4.0 | April 2024

About VMware Bare Metal Automation for VMware Telco Cloud Platform

VMware Bare Metal Automation™ (VMware BMA) for VMware Telco Cloud Platform™ is a bare metal provisioning tool, readying servers for operating system installation. VMware BMA bootstraps the server and installs the necessary software and firmware (BIOS and hardware) for VMware Telco Cloud Automation to start its infrastructure and CaaS automation processes.

For VMware Telco Cloud Platform customers, VMware BMA now completes the journey to realize end-to-end network automation — from initial zero-touch provisioning to supporting network services and network slices.

What's New

VMware BMA 4.0 is the official General Availability (GA) release.

Security Fix

The security is enhanced in this version of VMware Bare Metal Automation from the previous releases.

Debugger Improvement for Workflows

This release shows which debugger threads are exactly running unlike the earlier versions that displayed multiple thread executions as active across all threads. This is shown with an arrow marking the operational thread. The ability to see which threads are being executed by the platform allows you to monitor and plan load-balancing jobs and further optimize complex orchestrations and automation.

Out Of The Box Workflows Enhancement

The following workflows are added to VMware Bare Metal Automation 4.0. For more information, see VMware Bare Metal Automation for VMware Telco Cloud Platform Workflow Guide on the VMware BMA Documentation page.

  • BIOS Configuration for HPE servers

  • ESXi imaging for HPE servers

  • Collect server information for HPE servers

  • Secret password handling with encryption of password in customer input specification

    • The password is end-to-end encrypted in the workflow.

Workflow Versioning and Comparison

Compare Workflows feature in VMware Bare Metal Automation for VMware Telco Cloud Platform allows you to compare any two workflows or any two versions of a workflow. You can add any number of workflows to the compare workflow list, but you can only compare any two workflows at a time.

Worker Groups Role Assignment

Now, you can assign roles such as Admin or everyone when you create a worker group using Create Worker Group from the Worker Groups section. This functionality is accessible from the Permissions section of the Create Worker Group window.

The Password option in the Type drop-down menu in the Workflow Editor window allows you to hide the input in the fields. You can access it by selecting the Password option from the Type drop-down menu of the password field. After you select the Password option from the Type drop-down menu of the password field, the password you type is masked. When you select the Password option from the Type drop-down menu of the password field, the password that you have entered in string, number, boolean, or any other format is also encrypted.

Note:

If you are using the JSON/YAML editor all password-type field content will be displayed as plain text.

Components of VMware BMA

Download the Container Images and the Helm Charts from the VMware Downloads section. The following are the components of VMware BMA.

VMware Bare Metal Automation Helm Charts

  • VMware-Bare-Metal-Automation-Core-Chart-<version number>.tgz: VMware BMA 4.0 Core Helm Chart. For example, VMware-Bare-Metal-Automation-Core-Chart-4.0-v2024.1.497-b7.tgz

  • VMware-Bare-Metal-Automation-Remote-Worker-Chart-<version number>.tgz: VMware BMA 4.0 Remote Worker Helm Chart. For example, VMware-Bare-Metal-Automation-Remote-Worker-Chart-4.0-v2024.1.497-b7.tgz

VMware Bare Metal Automation Container Images

  • VMware-Bare-Metal-Automation-Core-<version number>.tgz: VMware BMA 4.0 Core Container Image. For example, VMware-Bare-Metal-Automation-Core-4.0-v2024.1.497-b7.tar.gz

  • VMware-Bare-Metal-Automation-Remote-Worker-<version number>.tgz: VMware BMA 4.0 Remote Worker Container Image. For example, VMware-Bare-Metal-Automation-Remote-Worker-4.0-v2024.1.497-b7.tar.gz

VMware Bare Metal Automation Out Of The Box (OOTB) Workflows

VMware Bare Metal Automation Out Of The Box (OOTB) Workflows are available as a ZIP package that you can import from the VMware BMA Web User Interface after installing it.

VMware-Bare-Metal-Automation-Workflows-4.0.zip is an example of the OOTB workflows zip package. VMware Bare Metal Automation Out-of-the-Box Workflows are designed to help customers to image their servers and includes processes like pre-validation, network configuration, and so on.

VMware Bare Metal Automation Input Specification Template File

  • VMware-Bare-Metal-Automation-InputSpec-Template-4.0.zip : Templates for input specifications for VMware Bare Metal Automation 4.0 workflows.

Important Functionalities of VMware BMA

VMware BMA ─ GIT Integration

VMware BMA is integrated to Git repository. So you can use the Git repository as a central repository to store the workflows from VMware BMA. You can Git Push workflows from VMware BMA to a Git repository and Git Pull workflows from a Git repository to VMware BMA.

Import CSAR Package to VMware Telco Cloud Automation

Starting from the VMware BMA 3.1 release, you can import CSAR package to VMware Telco Cloud Automation (TCA) as a Network Function and instantiate VMware BMA Core and VMware BMA Remote Workers via VMware TCA portal. For more information, see the Managing Network Function Catalogs section in the VMware Telco Cloud Automation User Guide at VMware Telco Cloud Automation Documentation.

Integration of VMware BMA Workflows with VMware TCA Workflow Hub

VMware BMA has a direct integration with the VMware TCA workflow hub.

From the VMware TCA workflow hub, you can trigger a VMware BMA workflow to be a part of the end-to-end orchestration workflow designed by the VMware TCA workflow hub.

For more information, see the Workflow Hub topic in the VMware Telco Cloud Automation User Guide in the VMware Telco Cloud Automation Documentation.

Functionalities Supported by OOTB Workflows

OOTB Workflows are engineering developed workflows designed to support the following functionalities:

  • Firmware and Bios update workflows (for Dell Hardware)

  • Installation of Operating System (ESXi and Photon OS)

    • Customer Input specification

    • Create virtual disk and custom ESXi and Photon OS ISO image, as per customer input specification.

    • Install ESXi and Photon OS Image

  • Pre/Post Installation Validation Capabilities

    • Pre-Install validation of host connectivity, authentication credentials, and storage device availability

    • Post Install Validation of host connectivity, FQDN, ESXi Image version, Photon OS Image version and server uptime

  • Server Information Collection

    • Collect information related to Imaging Host, Server Type, Vendor, SKU, CPU, and Storage.

  • Imaging Status Notification

    • Email notification on status of imaging

    • Granular start and stop time of imaging execution

    • Error handling

  • Secure Cloud Native Deployment Model

    • Highly available deployment

    • Concurrent ESX imaging support

    • Backup and restore and support bundle generation  

    • RBAC and TLS support

Bare Metal Servers Provisioning Process Overview

  • Deploy Cloud Native VMware BMA Core on your Kubernetes Cluster. VMware has tested 1.28.4, 1.27.8, and 1.24.10 Kubernetes version.

  • The VMware BMA Core includes two embedded remote workers and additional remote workers are optional. For more information, see VMware BMA Installation Guide and VMware BMA Architecture Guide.

  • Log in to the VMware BMA Core UI, apply the VMware BMA license if not applied during Helm Chart installation and import the OOTB workflows.

  • Place the ESXi image or Photon OS image on a customer provided ISO store. The webserver must have the genisoimage utility.

  • Prepare the input JSON specification file, initialize the workflow with this input and initiate the workflow.

Important Notes

  • VMware provides a ZIP package with out-of-the-box workflows to cover bare metal provisioning scenarios.

    • These workflows might require customizations. If you customize these workflows, ensure that you track and maintain the changes.

  • Bare metal server hardware tested by VMware with VMware's OOTB workflows are:

    • Dell XR11

    • Dell R750

    • Dell R640

    • HPE DL 110

  • Workflows are generic enough to cover different types of vendor's hardware, assuming the vendor supports the standard Redfish API.

    • If a hardware vendor has non-standard Redfish APIs, contact VMware Support team to verify if those specific APIs can be added to VMware BMA.

  • VMware Bare Metal Automation serves as a bare metal provisioning tool to the point of ESXi and Photon OS installation — bootstrapping the server and installing the necessary software and firmware for Telco Cloud Automation to start its CaaS automation processes.

  • VMware BMA is also an open tool for creating workflows.

    • VMware only supports specific workflows that are developed for bare metal provisioning.

    • VMware recommends using out-of-the-box workflows and customize them based on individual use cases.

Known Issues

Unable to Specify Disk for OS Installation

  • The workflow does not allow the user to specify the disk on which the OS must be installed. By default, the workflow selects the first disk on the server for installation.

Unable to have Multiple Host Entries in Input Specification File

  • The input specification file allows only one host entry if the network config type is set to DHCP and network device name is set to MAC address. The input specification file can have multiple host entries if the network device name is set to vmnic*.

Available Documentation

  • VMware BMA Installation Guide

  • VMware BMA Architecture Guide

  • VMware BMA Workflow Guide

  • VMware BMA User Guide

  • VMware BMA Release Notes

check-circle-line exclamation-circle-line close-line
Scroll to top icon