Understanding Automatic Node Discovery and Inventory

Intended for use with Cassatt Active Response Premium Edition and Data Center Edition V5.1.

This article describes the automatic discovery and inventory features. Note that these features can only be used with servers that will be used as utility computing nodes, and that have integrated power controllers.

Automatic discovery and inventory in a nutshell

Automatic discovery is a feature that you can enable that finds application nodes with integrated power controllers that are cabled into the Cassatt Active Response network, and puts them under Cassatt Active Response management. When this feature is enabled, Cassatt Active Response listens for DHCP requests either from the power controllers, or from the PXE setting in an application node's BIOS.

Automatic inventory is a feature that automatically inventories discovered nodes for hardware characteristics, such as the number and type of CPUs, RAM, disks, NICs, and HBAs. Inventory information is important because it determines whether an application node meets an application's hardware requirements.

As a safeguard, the Quarantine feature is available to isolate any device from Cassatt Active Response management.

Hardware that supports automatic discovery

The following table lists hardware that supports automatic discovery.

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How automatic discovery and inventory work: a sample walk-through

What happens during automatic discovery and inventory? More importantly, how does Cassatt Active Response acquire control of an application node for use as a resource? How does Cassatt Active Response leverage power controllers and PXE booting to achieve a hands-off discovery of nodes?

The following example shows how Cassatt Active Response uses integrated power controllers, and DHCP and PXE booting technologies for automatic node discovery.

1. In the Cassatt Active Response Controller, you turn on automatic discovery: Discovered Pool > Properties > Automatic Node Discovery = On, and Automatic Node Inventory = On.
2. You connect application nodes to the Cassatt Active Response network switches.
3. You configure the power controllers for DHCP.
4. You configure application nodes (via the BIOS) to boot from the network.
   
5. In preparation for discovery, you make sure application nodes are connected to power but turned off, network switches are connected and turned on, and control nodes are up and running.
6. Cassatt Active Response detects a DHCP request from the power controller and validates that it's a Cassatt Active Response–supported power controller with a firmware version it can manage.
7. Cassatt Active Response assigns an IP address for the power controller (from the reserved range of IP addresses for Cassatt Active Response.)
8. Cassatt Active Response uses the power controller to power on the application node and look for a bootable NIC MAC address.
9. In the Cassatt Active Response Controller, the power controller shows up in the Discovered Pool > Power Controller list.
10. After Cassatt Active Response gets the node's boot NIC MAC address, it creates the associated node in the Nodes List.
11. If automatic inventory is turned on, application nodes are booted and inventoried for their hardware characteristics.
    If Cassatt Active Response is unable to get the node's boot NIC MAC, the power controller never completes discovering and the node is not created until the problem is fixed.

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