Immutable Infrastructure

Bare Metal Provider Release Notes

TOC

Overviewv1.0.0 (2026-09-04)OverviewInitial Capability SetNotes

Overview

This page tracks release notes for the Alauda Container Platform Baremetal Infrastructure Provider. The version number you see on the platform refers to the packaging release of the bare-metal provider, which bundles the cluster-api-provider-baremetal controller image, the Alauda build of elemental-operator, the SeedImage builder, and the Helm chart used to deploy them on the Alauda Container Platform.

The provider manages Kubernetes cluster lifecycle on physical servers with no virtualization layer. For the capability model and how it differs from the VM-based providers, see Bare Metal Provider. For installation steps, see Bare Metal Provider Installation.

v1.0.0 (2026-09-04)

Overview

v1.0.0 is the initial release of the Alauda Container Platform Baremetal Infrastructure Provider. It is compatible with Alauda Container Platform 4.4.

The provider follows a YAML-only workflow. There is no Fleet Essentials UI for bare-metal clusters in this release; every workflow is driven by kubectl apply against BaremetalCluster, BaremetalMachineTemplate, MachineInventoryPool, and the upstream Cluster API resources.

Initial Capability Set

  • Inventory-based allocation model — Operators pre-declare which MachineInventory objects may back a KubeadmControlPlane or MachineDeployment through MachineInventoryPool. The provider selects an Available inventory from that pool when a Machine is created; nothing is provisioned outside the declared set. The provider never creates or deletes a MachineInventory.

  • Plan-driven node lifecycle — Node attach runs a reprovision plan (write cloud-init, cloud-init clean, elemental upgrade, reboot, cloud-init re-execute, kubeadm init/join). Node detach runs a clean plan (stop kubelet, clear CRI workload, stop containerd). The host stays in the inventory across scaling, upgrade, and cluster deletion.

  • Cluster API native object tree — Uses the upstream Cluster, KubeadmControlPlane, MachineDeployment, and Machine resources. The provider owns only the infrastructure tree: BaremetalCluster, BaremetalMachine, BaremetalMachineTemplate, and MachineInventoryPool. There is no custom control-plane CRD.

  • Image-catalog driven Kubernetes versions — A cluster-scoped elemental-image-catalog ConfigMap maps Machine.spec.version to an elemental upgrade image, so an upgrade is expressed as a version patch and the controller resolves the matching image.

  • Two control-plane endpoint modes — BaremetalCluster.spec.controlPlaneLoadBalancer.type: Internal deploys Alive (keepalived + IPVS + kube-lock Lease arbitration) onto the control-plane nodes and reconciles the Self-built VIP. External skips Alive and uses a pre-provisioned Layer 4 TCP load balancer maintained outside the cluster. See Plan the Control Plane Endpoint.

  • Network identity preservation — elemental-register records the live-ISO observed network in MachineInventory.spec.observedNetwork. The first install and every later reprovision plan replay that snapshot as cloud-init network-config v2, so a host keeps its address, default route, and DNS across the entire lifecycle.

  • Inventory-owned managed data disks — Up to 32 XFS or ext4 data volumes can be declared in MachineInventory.spec.storage. The provider prepares them before allocation, activates their mount units before kubelet during reprovision, deactivates them during node removal, and preserves their filesystems for reuse of the same inventory. Volumes are addressed by stable device identity rather than kernel names, so a device rename across reboots does not break the mapping. See Manage Data Disks on Bare-Metal Hosts.

  • Global Cluster disaster recovery — The provider supports the Global Cluster disaster recovery handoff, including isolation of Global system-agent credentials between the primary and standby sites. See Global Cluster Disaster Recovery.

  • Fixed install disk selection — The installation target disk can be pinned so that a host installs to the intended device. See Configure a Fixed Install Disk.

Notes

  • Base image ISO distribution — The provider chart does not bundle a base image ISO. Import the ISO into the platform registry out of band and reference it from SeedImage.spec.baseImage.

  • Architecture — This release ships linux/amd64 only.

  • Kubernetes version — Alauda Container Platform 4.4 ships Kubernetes 1.35. The OS image that a host installs must match the target Kubernetes version; see the OS Support Matrix for the per-release component versions and the supported OS variants.