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Approve each join

Approving a machine hands it its assignment. Nothing secret reaches it before that, and only over a channel pinned to its own key.

Approve

Section titled “Approve”

Match the machine by the pairing code on its console.

In Admin › Metal, Joining nodes, open the machine (Review and approve). The Hardware tab shows what it reported. The Approve tab leads with Same as the first node, the default when the machine has the same NICs and disks: it copies the first node’s links, NIC roles and disks. Edit to change any of it, then Approve and queue.

Approving a machine: the same as the first node, with its NIC roles and disks.
Approving a machine: the same as the first node, with its NIC roles and disks.

What the assignment holds

Section titled “What the assignment holds”
Setting Default
Name The host name.
Role hybrid (control plane and instances) while the cluster has fewer than its planned control-plane nodes, then hypervisor.
Rack None. A rack is declared on every node or on none.
Availability zone None. If set, it is the region plus one lowercase letter, for example local-1a.
Management NIC The NIC and address the machine registered from.
NIC roles Storage, overlay, VM traffic or unused, as links: NICs, bonds and VLANs.
Disks Each disk a role: compute pool (with a pool name and storage class), ceph-osd or unused.
Addresses From the cluster.
NTP servers The first node’s.
  • Disks. A disk that holds data needs a typed confirmation (--confirm KEY, or typing its name in the console). The system disk cannot be assigned. With the whole-disk OS layout the machine needs a compute disk or a ceph-osd disk.
  • Addresses. A link that carries storage or overlay and names no address gets the next free host address of that network, and the network’s MTU. A full network is refused.
  • Never asked. The region, parent domain, upstream DNS, service addresses, the first admin and the cluster’s secrets come from the cluster.
  • Control-plane count. An approval that would leave an even number of control-plane nodes beyond the planned size is refused: approve it as hypervisor. At most 5 vote. Approve the third node straight after the second.

The approval is checked against the machine’s own hardware and refused with every reason: an unknown NIC or disk, a disk with data and no confirmation, a rack or network the other nodes do not declare, an address another node has.

For a file (-f), the assignment is YAML or JSON:

name: node-3
role: hybrid
rack: r3
links:
  - {name: storage, interface: enp2s0f0, purposes: [storage]}
disks:
  - {key: /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-EXAMPLE_B, role: ceph-osd}

It joins, one at a time

Section titled “It joins, one at a time”

Approved machines join in approval order, one at a time. A join starts only when the cluster is READY, no node is joining or being removed, no upgrade runs, and every node has applied the current membership. A queued join says what it waits for.

Terminal window
stratumctl admin nodes joins list
stratumctl admin nodes joins watch nj-8w2k4m1p

The node brings up its links (bonds, VLANs), installs the platform and joins the Postgres, OpenBao and OVN clusters. The step Joining Postgres (Patroni) ends when its Postgres streams from the primary. It is joined once the node is an active member and every node has applied it.

A join in progress: each step and the install log.
A join in progress: each step and the install log.
  • Failed. The failed step is named by its title (for example Joining the OVN raft) in the list and the drawer, with the error, and the node is taken back out of every cluster it reached. Fix the cause and stratumctl admin nodes joins retry <id>.
  • Silent for 10 minutes shows as stalled.
  • Reject (stratumctl admin nodes joins reject <id> --reason "...") ends a registration. Create a new join code and give it to the machine with stratum-installer join; it registers anew without a reinstall.

Approve the next machine, then check readiness.