/ironic-status

Name

openshift:ironic-status

Synopsis

/openshift:ironic-status

Description

The openshift:ironic-status command checks the status of Ironic baremetal nodes in an OpenShift cluster.

This command is useful for:

• Monitoring baremetal node health and provisioning status
• Troubleshooting node provisioning issues
• Verifying node enrollment and availability
• Checking node maintenance states
• Diagnosing baremetal infrastructure problems

Prerequisites

Before using this command, ensure you have:

1. OpenShift CLI (oc): Must be installed and configured

   • Install from: https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/ocp/
   • Verify with: oc version

2. Active cluster connection: Must be connected to an OpenShift cluster with baremetal nodes

   • Verify with: oc whoami
   • Ensure KUBECONFIG is set if needed

3. Sufficient permissions: Must have access to the openshift-machine-api namespace

   • Ability to exec into pods in openshift-machine-api namespace
   • Read access to services and deployments

4. baremetal cluster: The cluster must be running on baremetal infrastructure with Metal3/Ironic enabled

   • Verify Metal3 components: oc get pods -n openshift-machine-api | grep metal3-ironic

Implementation

The command performs the following steps to retrieve Ironic node status:

1. Detect Ironic Service Endpoint

Locate the Ironic service in the openshift-machine-api namespace:

# Find the Ironic service (typically named metal3-state)
oc get service -n openshift-machine-api metal3-state

# Get the ClusterIP of the Ironic service
IRONIC_SERVICE=$(oc get service -n openshift-machine-api metal3-state)
IRONIC_IP=$(oc get service -n openshift-machine-api $IRONIC_SERVICE -o jsonpath='{.spec.clusterIP}')

# Ironic API typically runs on port 6385
IRONIC_ENDPOINT="https://localhost:6385"

2. Retrieve Ironic Credentials

Extract authentication credentials from the baremetal operator container:

# Find the metal3-baremetal-operator pod
BAREMETAL_OPERATOR_POD=$(oc get pods -n openshift-machine-api -l baremetal.openshift.io/cluster-baremetal-operator=metal3-baremetal-operator -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')

# Extract username from the mounted auth volume
IRONIC_USERNAME=$(oc exec -n openshift-machine-api $BAREMETAL_OPERATOR_POD -c metal3-baremetal-operator -- cat /auth/ironic/username)

# Extract password from the mounted auth volume
IRONIC_PASSWORD=$(oc exec -n openshift-machine-api $BAREMETAL_OPERATOR_POD -c metal3-baremetal-operator -- cat /auth/ironic/password)

3. Query Ironic Node List

Execute the baremetal client command to retrieve node status:

# Find the metal3-ironic pod
# Example: oc get pods -n openshift-machine-api
# Output may show: metal3-65bd97647f-hbd48

# Execute baremetal node list command
oc exec -n openshift-machine-api $METAL3_POD -c metal3-ironic -- \
  baremetal \
    --os-cacert /certs/ironic/tls.crt
    --os-auth-type http_basic \
    --os-username "$IRONIC_USERNAME" \
    --os-password "$IRONIC_PASSWORD" \
    --os-endpoint "$IRONIC_ENDPOINT" \
    node list

4. Parse and Present Node Information

The output typically includes:

• UUID: Unique identifier for each node
• Name: Node name (usually matches BareMetalHost name)
• Instance UUID: Associated instance if provisioned
• Power State: Current power status (power on, power off)
• Provisioning State: Current provisioning status (available, active, deploying, etc.)
• Maintenance: Whether the node is in maintenance mode

5. Error Handling

Handle common error scenarios:

# Check if Metal3 components are running
if ! oc get pods -n openshift-machine-api | grep -q metal3; then
    echo "Error: Metal3 components not found. This may not be a baremetal cluster."
    exit 1
fi

# Check if credentials were retrieved successfully
if [ -z "$IRONIC_USERNAME" ] || [ -z "$IRONIC_PASSWORD" ]; then
    echo "Error: Failed to retrieve Ironic credentials"
    exit 1
fi

# Handle connection failures
if ! oc exec ... 2>&1 | grep -q "UUID"; then
    echo "Error: Failed to connect to Ironic API"
    echo "Check that the Ironic service is accessible"
    exit 1
fi

Adaptation Guidance

If expected values don't match your environment, use these techniques to discover the correct values:

Finding the Ironic API Port

If port 6385 doesn't work, discover the actual port:

# Check service ports
oc get service -n openshift-machine-api metal3-state -o jsonpath='{.spec.ports[*].port}'

# Then update IRONIC_ENDPOINT
IRONIC_ENDPOINT="https://localhost:${DISCOVERED_PORT}"

Finding Services and Pods

If service/pod names differ from expected patterns:

# List all services/pods in the namespace
oc get services -n openshift-machine-api
oc get pods -n openshift-machine-api

# Filter by labels
oc get services -n openshift-machine-api -l app=metal3
oc get pods -n openshift-machine-api -l app=metal3 -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}'

Finding Container Names and Credential Paths

If container names or credential paths are different:

# List containers in a pod
oc get pod -n openshift-machine-api <pod-name> -o jsonpath='{.spec.containers[*].name}'

# Find credential files
oc exec -n openshift-machine-api $POD -c $CONTAINER -- find /auth -type f 2>/dev/null

Alternative Commands

If baremetal command is unavailable, try:

# Check what's available
oc exec -n openshift-machine-api $METAL3_POD -c metal3-ironic -- which openstack

# Try alternatives: "openstack baremetal node list" or "ironic node-list"

# Or use curl directly
oc exec -n openshift-machine-api $METAL3_POD -c metal3-ironic -- \
  curl -k -u "$IRONIC_USERNAME:$IRONIC_PASSWORD" "$IRONIC_ENDPOINT/v1/nodes"

General strategy: When commands fail, list resources with oc get, check labels with -l, inspect with oc describe, and explore interactively with oc exec.

Return Value

The command outputs a table with the following columns:

• Format: ASCII table with columns for UUID, Name, Instance UUID, Power State, Provisioning State, and Maintenance

Example output:

+--------------------------------------+------------------------+--------------------------------------+-------------+--------------------+-------------+
| UUID                                 | Name                   | Instance UUID                        | Power State | Provisioning State | Maintenance |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------+--------------------------------------+-------------+--------------------+-------------+
| 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012 | openshift-worker-0     | abcdef12-3456-7890-abcd-ef1234567890 | power on    | active             | False       |
| 23456789-2345-2345-2345-234567890123 | openshift-worker-1     | bcdef123-4567-8901-bcde-f12345678901 | power on    | active             | False       |
| 34567890-3456-3456-3456-345678901234 | openshift-worker-2     | None                                 | power off   | available          | False       |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------+--------------------------------------+-------------+--------------------+-------------+

Exit codes:

• 0: Successfully retrieved and displayed node status
• 1: Error occurred (Metal3 not found, credential retrieval failed, connection error)

Examples

Example 1: Basic usage

/openshift:ironic-status

Output:

Detecting Ironic endpoint...
Found Ironic service: metal3-state at 172.30.123.45:6385

Retrieving Ironic credentials...
Successfully retrieved credentials from baremetal operator

Querying Ironic node list...

+--------------------------------------+------------------------+--------------------------------------+-------------+--------------------+-------------+
| UUID                                 | Name                   | Instance UUID                        | Power State | Provisioning State | Maintenance |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------+--------------------------------------+-------------+--------------------+-------------+
| 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012 | openshift-worker-0     | abcdef12-3456-7890-abcd-ef1234567890 | power on    | active             | False       |
| 23456789-2345-2345-2345-234567890123 | openshift-worker-1     | bcdef123-4567-8901-bcde-f12345678901 | power on    | active             | False       |
| 34567890-3456-3456-3456-345678901234 | openshift-worker-2     | None                                 | power off   | available          | False       |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------+--------------------------------------+-------------+--------------------+-------------+

Summary: 3 nodes total (2 active, 1 available)

Common Provisioning States

Understanding the provisioning states:

• available: Node is ready to be provisioned
• active: Node is provisioned and in use
• deploying: Node is currently being provisioned
• deploy failed: Provisioning attempt failed
• cleaning: Node is being cleaned for reuse
• manageable: Node is manageable but not available for deployment
• inspect failed: Introspection failed
• error: Node is in an error state

Troubleshooting

Metal3 Components Not Found

If Metal3 components are not running:

oc get pods -n openshift-machine-api
# Look for pods starting with 'metal3-'

# Check BareMetalHost resources
oc get baremetalhosts -n openshift-machine-api

Credential Retrieval Failure

If unable to retrieve credentials:

# Check if the secret exists
oc get secrets -n openshift-machine-api | grep metal3

# Verify the baremetal operator pod is running
oc get pods -n openshift-machine-api -l k8s-app=metal3-baremetal-operator

Connection Timeout

If unable to connect to Ironic API:

# Check if the Ironic pod is running
oc get pods -n openshift-machine-api -l app=metal3

# Check Ironic logs
oc logs -n openshift-machine-api <metal3-pod-name> -c metal3-ironic

Security Considerations

• Credentials: The command retrieves sensitive Ironic credentials; ensure output is not shared publicly
• Cluster access: Requires exec permissions into cluster pods
• Read-only operation: This command only reads node status and does not modify any resources

See Also

• Metal3 Documentation: https://metal3.io/
• OpenShift baremetal Documentation: https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/latest/installing/installing_bare_metal/
• Ironic API Reference: https://docs.openstack.org/ironic/latest/
• Related commands: /openshift:cluster-health-check

Notes

• This command is specific to OpenShift clusters deployed on baremetal infrastructure
• The Ironic service endpoint and pod names may vary depending on the OpenShift version
• Ensure you have network connectivity to the cluster