.. _pluggable_drivers: ================= Pluggable Drivers ================= Ironic supports a pluggable driver model. This allows contributors to easily add new drivers, and operators to use third-party drivers or write their own. A driver is built at runtime from a *hardware type* and *hardware interfaces*. See :doc:`/install/enabling-drivers` for a detailed explanation of these concepts. Hardware types and interfaces are loaded by the ``ironic-conductor`` service during initialization from the setuptools entrypoints ``ironic.hardware.types`` and ``ironic.hardware.interfaces.`` where ```` is an interface type (for example, ``deploy``). Only hardware types listed in the configuration option ``enabled_hardware_types`` and interfaces listed in configuration options ``enabled__interfaces`` are loaded. A complete list of hardware types available on the system may be found by enumerating this entrypoint by running the following python script:: #!/usr/bin/env python import pkg_resources as pkg print [p.name for p in pkg.iter_entry_points("ironic.hardware.types") if not p.name.startswith("fake")] A list of drivers enabled in a running Ironic service may be found by issuing the following command against that API end point:: baremetal driver list Writing a hardware type ----------------------- A hardware type is a Python class, inheriting :py:class:`ironic.drivers.hardware_type.AbstractHardwareType` and listed in the setuptools entry point ``ironic.hardware.types``. Most of the real world hardware types inherit :py:class:`ironic.drivers.generic.GenericHardware` instead. This helper class provides useful implementations for interfaces that are usually the same for all hardware types, such as ``deploy``. The minimum required interfaces are: * :doc:`boot ` that specifies how to boot ramdisks and instances on the hardware. A generic ``pxe`` implementation is provided by the ``GenericHardware`` base class. * :doc:`deploy ` that orchestrates the deployment. A few common implementations are provided by the ``GenericHardware`` base class. As of the Rocky release, a deploy interface should decorate its deploy method to indicate that it is a deploy step. Conventionally, the deploy method uses a priority of 100. .. code-block:: python @ironic.drivers.base.deploy_step(priority=100) def deploy(self, task): .. note:: Most of the hardware types should not override this interface. * `power` implements power actions for the hardware. These common implementations may be used, if supported by the hardware: * :py:class:`ironic.drivers.modules.ipmitool.IPMIPower` * :py:class:`ironic.drivers.modules.redfish.power.RedfishPower` Otherwise, you need to write your own implementation by subclassing :py:class:`ironic.drivers.base.PowerInterface` and providing missing methods. .. note:: Power actions in Ironic are blocking - methods of a power interface should not return until the power action is finished or errors out. * `management` implements additional out-of-band management actions, such as setting a boot device. A few common implementations exist and may be used, if supported by the hardware: * :py:class:`ironic.drivers.modules.ipmitool.IPMIManagement` * :py:class:`ironic.drivers.modules.redfish.management.RedfishManagement` Some hardware types, such as ``snmp`` do not support out-of-band management. They use the fake implementation in :py:class:`ironic.drivers.modules.fake.FakeManagement` instead. Otherwise, you need to write your own implementation by subclassing :py:class:`ironic.drivers.base.ManagementInterface` and providing missing methods. Combine the interfaces in a hardware type by populating the lists of supported interfaces. These lists are prioritized, with the most preferred implementation first. For example: .. code-block:: python class MyHardware(generic.GenericHardware): @property def supported_management_interfaces(self): """List of supported management interfaces.""" return [MyManagement, ipmitool.IPMIManagement] @property def supported_power_interfaces(self): """List of supported power interfaces.""" return [MyPower, ipmitool.IPMIPower] .. note:: In this example, all interfaces, except for ``management`` and ``power`` are taken from the ``GenericHardware`` base class. Finally, give the new hardware type and new interfaces human-friendly names and create entry points for them in the ``setup.cfg`` file:: ironic.hardware.types = my-hardware = ironic.drivers.my_hardware:MyHardware ironic.hardware.interfaces.power = my-power = ironic.drivers.modules.my_hardware:MyPower ironic.hardware.interfaces.management = my-management = ironic.drivers.modules.my_hardware:MyManagement Supported Drivers ----------------- For a list of supported drivers (those that are continuously tested on every upstream commit) please consult the :doc:`drivers page `. Node Vendor Passthru -------------------- Drivers may implement a passthrough API, which is accessible via the ``/v1/nodes//vendor_passthru?method={METHOD}`` endpoint. Beyond basic checking, Ironic does not introspect the message body and simply "passes it through" to the relevant driver. A method: * can support one or more HTTP methods (for example, GET, POST) * is asynchronous or synchronous + For asynchronous methods, a 202 (Accepted) HTTP status code is returned to indicate that the request was received, accepted and is being acted upon. No body is returned in the response. + For synchronous methods, a 200 (OK) HTTP status code is returned to indicate that the request was fulfilled. The response may include a body. * can require an exclusive lock on the node. This only occurs if the method doesn't specify require_exclusive_lock=False in the decorator. If an exclusive lock is held on the node, other requests for the node will be delayed and may fail with an HTTP 409 (Conflict) error code. This endpoint exposes a node's driver directly, and as such, it is expressly not part of Ironic's standard REST API. There is only a single HTTP endpoint exposed, and the semantics of the message body are determined solely by the driver. Ironic makes no guarantees about backwards compatibility; this is solely up to the discretion of each driver's author. To get information about all the methods available via the vendor_passthru endpoint for a particular node, you can issue an HTTP GET request:: GET /v1/nodes//vendor_passthru/methods The response's JSON body will contain information for each method, such as the method's name, a description, the HTTP methods supported, and whether it's asynchronous or synchronous. Driver Vendor Passthru ---------------------- Drivers may implement an API for requests not related to any node, at ``/v1/drivers//vendor_passthru?method={METHOD}``. A method: * can support one or more HTTP methods (for example, GET, POST) * is asynchronous or synchronous + For asynchronous methods, a 202 (Accepted) HTTP status code is returned to indicate that the request was received, accepted and is being acted upon. No body is returned in the response. + For synchronous methods, a 200 (OK) HTTP status code is returned to indicate that the request was fulfilled. The response may include a body. .. note:: Unlike methods in `Node Vendor Passthru`_, a request does not lock any resource, so it will not delay other requests and will not fail with an HTTP 409 (Conflict) error code. Ironic makes no guarantees about the semantics of the message BODY sent to this endpoint. That is left up to each driver's author. To get information about all the methods available via the driver vendor_passthru endpoint, you can issue an HTTP GET request:: GET /v1/drivers//vendor_passthru/methods The response's JSON body will contain information for each method, such as the method's name, a description, the HTTP methods supported, and whether it's asynchronous or synchronous.