The best tools for bare metal automation that people actually use

Automating physical bare metal machines is no longer optional. Without automation, infrastructure operations quickly devolve into a slow, fragile, and error-prone process where every server installation involves hand-editing PXE configurations, manually adjusting BIOS or firmware settings, power-cycling machines through vendor consoles, retyping kickstarts or preseed files, and hoping nothing important drifted since the last deployment. In modern environments, where fleets grow quickly, hardware diversity is the norm, and failure is expected rather than exceptional, this approach does not scale. Automation exists to turn racks into systems: servers are discovered, powered, imaged, configured, and recycled through APIs instead of human intervention. The result is deterministic builds, faster recovery, and auditable change. The why is reliability and speed, the how is declarative workflows backed by PXE and out-of-band management, and the when is early, as soon as you operate more than a handful of machines or care about uptime, compliance, or cost efficiency.

This guide highlights some of the most commonly used tools for bare metal automation today. It is not exhaustive, but it focuses on projects with real adoption signals, including active contributors, production usage, and sustained growth. The tools are grouped by function to make it easier to understand where each one fits. Every environment is different, so treat this as a practical starting point rather than a prescriptive checklist.

1) Bare metal provisioning and lifecycle (PXE, imaging, inventory)

Bare metal provisioning is the foundation of any automation strategy. At scale, provisioning is not just about installing an operating system. It includes discovery, hardware inventory, power control, image deployment, and eventually decommissioning. The following tools are widely used to manage this full lifecycle.

MAAS (Metal as a Service) - Open source

MAAS provides end-to-end control of a bare metal provisioning environment. It manages DHCP, DNS, and PXE, performs hardware commissioning to discover CPU, memory, storage, and NICs, and deploys operating systems based on constraints and tags.

In practice, MAAS is often placed in control of a dedicated provisioning network. Servers are first commissioned to collect detailed hardware data, then tagged by role, rack, or capability. Deployment becomes a scheduling problem: MAAS selects machines that match a set of requirements and installs the requested image. This model works well for environments where hardware is shared across multiple workloads or reallocated frequently.

Foreman - Open source

Foreman is a lifecycle management platform that combines provisioning, inventory, and orchestration behind a unified UI and API. It supports PXE-based provisioning and integrates with configuration management systems.

A common pattern is to use Foreman to define what infrastructure should exist, including host parameters and lifecycle state, while delegating configuration enforcement to tools like Ansible or Salt. Foreman acts as the source of truth, coordinating provisioning and handing off to downstream automation for ongoing configuration.

Katello (Foreman plugin) - Open source

Katello extends Foreman with content and subscription lifecycle management. It is especially relevant in RHEL and Fedora-based environments where controlled promotion of packages and repositories is critical.

Katello mirrors content, groups it into content views, and promotes those views across environments such as development, staging, and production. When combined with Foreman provisioning, new machines are automatically bootstrapped with the correct repositories and patch level, reducing configuration drift from day one.

Cobbler - Open source

Cobbler is a lighter-weight provisioning system that focuses on PXE, DHCP, TFTP, and templated installs using kickstart or preseed files. It predates many newer tools but remains in use due to its simplicity.

Cobbler works well as a bootstrap layer or in smaller environments where full lifecycle management is unnecessary. Teams typically use it to maintain a library of OS profiles and rapidly reimage machines in a predictable way.

2) API-driven bare metal provisioning engines

As fleets grow and workflows become more complex, simple PXE templating is often not enough. API-driven provisioning engines treat bare metal more like cloud infrastructure, exposing hardware lifecycle operations through programmable interfaces.

OpenStack Ironic - Open source

Ironic provides bare metal provisioning as a service. Hardware is enrolled with management credentials and metadata, and Ironic controls power, boot configuration, disk cleaning, and image deployment.

Ironic can operate as part of a full OpenStack deployment or as a standalone service. In both cases, it integrates tightly with networking and identity systems, making it suitable for large, multi-tenant environments where bare metal needs to behave like an on-demand resource.

Tinkerbell - Open source

Tinkerbell takes a workflow-based approach to bare metal provisioning. Instead of defining a single install path, users compose workflows that describe each step in the provisioning process.

Typical workflows include inventory collection, disk wiping, image writing, kernel handoff, and post-install bootstrapping. This model is well suited to heterogeneous hardware fleets and environments where provisioning logic needs to be explicit and version-controlled.

3) Kubernetes-native bare metal

As Kubernetes becomes the control plane for infrastructure, some teams choose to represent physical machines as cloud native Kubernetes resources. This enables GitOps workflows and a unified operational model across virtual and physical infrastructure. It's worth noting that in addition to the tools below, many other projects integrate with Kubernetes, not only for provisioning bare metal but also for managing networking, storage, and virtualization on physical hosts, let's name a few: MetalLB, Longhorn, Harvester, and KubeVirt.

Metal3 Bare Metal Operator

The Bare Metal Operator introduces custom resources that represent physical hosts. Each host is reconciled by controllers that inspect hardware, provision images, and track lifecycle state inside Kubernetes.

In practice, BMO is deployed in a management cluster. BareMetalHost objects reference out-of-band management endpoints and desired images. The Kubernetes control plane then drives hardware state transitions, making bare metal part of the same declarative system as the workloads it runs.

Rancher RKE2

RKE2 is a hardened Kubernetes distribution commonly deployed on bare metal, particularly in environments with strict security or compliance requirements.

RKE2 is typically installed after provisioning, using systemd-based installers and secure join tokens. When paired with automated provisioning, it enables consistent Kubernetes clusters without manual node preparation or snowflake configurations. Longhorn and Harvester are often used alongside RKE2 to provide software-defined storage and virtualization on bare metal nodes.

4) Configuration management and orchestration

Provisioning installs an operating system, but it does not guarantee long-term correctness. Configuration management enforces desired state over time and coordinates complex operational workflows.

Ansible

Ansible provides agentless automation over SSH or WinRM. It is widely used to apply baseline configuration immediately after provisioning and to orchestrate ongoing changes.

Playbooks are designed to be idempotent, allowing operators to rerun them safely to repair drift. In bare metal environments, Ansible often serves as the glue between provisioning systems, hardware management APIs, and higher-level platforms like Kubernetes.

Salt

Salt combines configuration management with an event-driven execution model. Its reactor system allows actions to be triggered automatically in response to events.

This makes Salt a strong choice for environments that require fast, reactive automation, such as automatically bootstrapping new machines or responding to hardware state changes during large-scale rollouts.

5) Infrastructure as Code for the provisioning platform

Automation does not stop at the server. The networks, IP address management, DNS, secrets, and control systems that support provisioning must also be reproducible.

Terraform

Terraform is a declarative infrastructure as code tool widely adopted in cloud environments and increasingly used on-premises. It is often used to define networks, firewalls, load balancers, DNS zones, and other shared services that bare metal provisioning depends on.

By reviewing plans before applying changes, teams gain visibility into how infrastructure will evolve, reducing surprises in production.

OpenTofu

OpenTofu is a community-driven fork of Terraform that focuses on open governance. It is commonly used to model the same supporting infrastructure, particularly in environments that prioritize open tooling and long-term control.

Using OpenTofu to define the provisioning platform ensures that the automation environment itself remains consistent and recoverable.

6) Hardware management APIs

Bare metal automation depends on out-of-band management. Without the ability to remotely power-cycle systems, change boot order, or apply firmware updates, automation breaks down.

Redfish

Redfish is a modern, REST-based standard for hardware management defined by the DMTF. It exposes consistent APIs for power control, inventory, boot configuration, and firmware operations across vendors.

Most provisioning and orchestration tools rely on Redfish, directly or indirectly, to control physical servers without human intervention.

7) Commercial tooling

While open source tools form the backbone of many automation stacks, commercial offerings provide enterprise support, vendor-specific integrations, and additional management features.

Red Hat OpenShift

OpenShift is an enterprise Kubernetes platform often deployed on bare metal. It builds on upstream Kubernetes and adds opinionated lifecycle management, policy enforcement, and integrated tooling.

Organizations typically use existing provisioning systems to deliver standardized hosts, then install OpenShift to manage workloads and cluster operations.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

This platform packages Ansible with centralized controllers, role-based access control, analytics, and support. It is commonly used to standardize automation execution across large teams.

Dell iDRAC and OpenManage Enterprise

Dell’s management tooling provides deep integration with PowerEdge hardware. iDRAC exposes out-of-band control, while OpenManage Enterprise adds fleet-level visibility, monitoring, and lifecycle management.

These tools are often integrated into broader automation pipelines to handle firmware and hardware-specific workflows.

Lenovo XClarity

XClarity provides similar capabilities for Lenovo hardware, including inventory, configuration patterns, and firmware management. Licensed editions unlock advanced automation and OS deployment features.

The part people usually underestimate

Tooling alone does not guarantee success. Two challenges consistently determine whether bare metal automation works in practice. First, control plane reachability must be boringly reliable: management networks, DHCP, DNS, and routing have to work every time. Second, state convergence must be continuous: imaging is only the beginning, and firmware, BIOS settings, kernel parameters, storage layout, and platform prerequisites must be enforced repeatedly.

Most successful stacks combine several layers. Provisioning is handled by MAAS or Ironic or Tinkerbell. Kubernetes-native environments add the Bare Metal Operator. Configuration convergence is enforced by Ansible or Salt. The supporting platform is defined with OpenTofu. Out-of-band control relies on Redfish and vendor management tools. Together, these components turn physical infrastructure into something that behaves like software.