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 for VMware Telco Cloud Automation to start its infrastructure and CaaS Automation processes.

In addition to the ISO image installation, VMware BMA also automates firmware installations and upgrades, RAID configuration, and server hardware inventory collection.

For VMware Telco Cloud Platform users, 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.

Note:

BMA provides a solution to install ESXi on bare metal. It is an optional component in the Telco Cloud Platform stack and it can be leveraged for both Telco Cloud Platform 5G (Core) and Telco Cloud Platform RAN.

You can install Bare Metal Automation in a cloud-native environment. For more information about prerequisites and instructions for installing bare metal automation, see the Bare Metal Automation Installation Guide.

For information about scaling and design recommendations, see the Telco Cloud Reference Architecture Guide.