International Business Machines Corporation

Alan Ross

Marc Cochran

Hubertus Franke

Christoph Raisch

Malcolm Scott Allen-Ware

Gheorghe Almasi

Kevin Allen Hughes

Jason Garth Pearce

Jeffrey Bloom

Marcio Augusto Silva

Alexander T Iannicelli

James H H Chou

Embodiments for managing bare metal networking in a cloud computing environment. A network communication module that receives a configuration instruction over a direct network link from an external remote management device on a network endpoint may be initialized.

Managing bare metal networking in a cloud computing environment

Preparing a plurality of computer nodes to boot in a multidimensional fabric network is provided. The method includes a fabric processor (FP) generating a plurality of DHCP discovery packets using a baseboard management controller (BMC) MAC address, and placing them into the multi-host switch. A dedicated connection directly connects the BMC and the FP. All ports of the multi-host switch broadcast DHCP discovery packets into the fabric network. The BMC, FP, and switch are all within the node. A designated exit node inside the fabric connects to a provisioning node not part of the fabric. The exit node relays DHCP traffic from the fabric. A location-based IP address uniquely identifies the nodes' physical location in the fabric. The IP address is calculated based on inventory records describing physical location information about the nodes. The FP calculates a host MAC address using its IP address and configures it onto the switch.

Preparing computer nodes to boot in a multidimensional torus fabric network

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Windham, NH, United States of America

Alan Ross