boot-operator

The Boot Operator is a Kubernetes controller designed to streamline the management of Boot infrastructure such as HTTPBoot within Kubernetes environments. This operator simplifies network booting processes by automating HTTPBoot UKI URL generation and ignition content delivery based on Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs).

Key Components

• HTTP Boot Server: Serves dynamic HTTP Boot Responses and ignition content through HTTP endpoints, tailored to individual machine specifications.

• Reconciler: Configures the HTTP Server based on the desired state specified in HTTPBootConfig CRs, ensuring the server's configuration aligns with cluster resources.

• Translator (Optional): Converts BootConfig CustomResources from MetalAPI provided by Ironcore into the format expected by the HTTPBoot Operator, enhancing integration capabilities.

HTTP Server Endpoints

• /ignition/{UUID}: Matches an HTTPBootConfig using the provided {UUID} (Spec.systemUUID) and serves the associated ignition content.

• /httpboot: Identifies the corresponding HTTPBootConfig based on the requester's system IP (Spec.SystemIP). It then returns the customized UKIURL associated with the HTTPBootConfig - nota bene: the webserver providing the UKIs should set the content-type to application/efi otherwise certain HTTPBoot clients might reject it.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• go version v1.21.0+
• docker version 17.03+.
• kubectl version v1.11.3+.
• Access to a Kubernetes v1.11.3+ cluster.

To Deploy on the cluster

Build and push your image to the location specified by IMG:

make docker-build docker-push IMG=<some-registry>/boot-operator:tag

NOTE: This image ought to be published in the personal registry you specified. And it is required to have access to pull the image from the working environment. Make sure you have the proper permission to the registry if the above commands don’t work.

Install the CRDs into the cluster:

make install

Deploy the Manager to the cluster with the image specified by IMG:

make deploy IMG=<some-registry>/boot-operator:tag

NOTE: If you encounter RBAC errors, you may need to grant yourself cluster-admin privileges or be logged in as admin.

Create instances of your solution You can apply the samples (examples) from the config/sample:

kubectl apply -k config/samples/

NOTE: Ensure that the samples has default values to test it out.

To Uninstall

Delete the instances (CRs) from the cluster:

kubectl delete -k config/samples/

Delete the APIs(CRDs) from the cluster:

make uninstall

UnDeploy the controller from the cluster:

make undeploy

Project Distribution

Following are the steps to build the installer and distribute this project to users.

1. Build the installer for the image built and published in the registry:

make build-installer IMG=<some-registry>/boot-operator:tag

NOTE: The makefile target mentioned above generates an 'install.yaml' file in the dist directory. This file contains all the resources built with Kustomize, which are necessary to install this project without its dependencies.

2. Using the installer

Users can just run kubectl apply -f to install the project, i.e.:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/<org>/boot-operator/<tag or branch>/dist/install.yaml

NOTE: Run make help for more information on all potential make targets

More information can be found via the Kubebuilder Documentation

Roadmap

Looking ahead, the boot-Operator aims to introduce a range of enhancements to further empower Kubernetes-driven infrastructure provisioning:

• Custom Image Registry Support: Dynamically generate URLs for the kernel, initrd, and squashfs images from a specified image registry, facilitating streamlined updates and deployments.

• Expanded Endpoints: Introduce additional endpoints, such as /ztp for Zero Touch Provisioning of switches and /certs for certificate management, broadening the operator's utility.

• Enhanced Indexing: Implement indexing based on MAC addresses in addition to the existing SystemUUID and SystemIP, offering more granular control and identification of network boot targets.

Contributing

We'd love to get feedback from you. Please report bugs, suggestions or post questions by opening a GitHub issue.

Licensing

Copyright 2025 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company and IronCore contributors. Please see our LICENSE for copyright and license information. Detailed information including third-party components and their licensing/copyright information is available via the REUSE tool.