theforeman/foreman
Foreman
Foreman is a lifecycle infrastructure management platform used for automating the provisioning, configuration, and monitoring of physical, virtual, and cloud servers. It serves as a central hub for managing the entire lifespan of a server, from initial deployment and operating system upgrades to decommissioning and auditing.
The platform functions as a hybrid cloud manager and bare-metal provisioning tool, providing a unified interface to control virtual machine lifecycles across diverse hypervisors and public cloud providers. It automates hardware discovery and operating system deployment using PXE, IPMI, and Redfish for physical hardware, while supporting standardized compute profiles for virtual environments.
Beyond deployment, it acts as a configuration management orchestrator by integrating with Puppet and Salt to maintain consistent system states and monitor compliance. Its broader capability surface includes network service orchestration for DNS, DHCP, and TFTP, as well as an infrastructure monitoring dashboard for tracking host health and system facts.
Access control is managed through role-based permissions with support for LDAP synchronization and OpenID Connect single sign-on.
Features
- Host Lifecycle Management - Expires hosts based on a defined lifetime or triggers scripts during specific lifecycle events.
- Infrastructure Management Platforms - Acts as a centralized platform for automating the full lifecycle of physical, virtual, and cloud servers.
- Bare Metal Orchestration - Automates the discovery and deployment of operating systems to physical hardware using PXE and remote power management.
- Server Provisioning - Automates the entire server lifespan from initial provisioning and setup through to ongoing monitoring.
- Dynamic DNS - Updates and removes DNS records in name servers using the Dynamic DNS standard.
- Configuration Managers - Integrates with Puppet servers to assign configuration classes and monitor host compliance across the infrastructure.
- External Automation Integrations - Connects to external automation tools to manage the state and configuration of hosts.
- Multi-Platform Provisioning - Automates operating system deployment across both physical hardware and cloud providers using PXE or cloud-init.
- Cloud Compute Instance Management - Enables central management of the lifecycle and connectivity for virtual machine instances across diverse cloud platforms.
- Cloud Host Provisioning - Provides the ability to create and manage virtual machines across multiple compute providers and cloud platforms.
- Programmatic Resource Management - Offers a standard RESTful JSON or GraphQL interface to programmatically control and manage all available system resources.
- Hybrid - Deploys operating systems to bare-metal and cloud providers using a unified provisioning process.
- Cloud Resource Managers - Integrates with virtualization and cloud platforms to discover, catalog, and control the lifecycles of compute resources.
- Configuration Management Orchestration - Integrates with configuration systems to push desired states and manage node registration.
- Infrastructure Lifecycle Management - Manages the entire server lifespan from initial provisioning and OS upgrades to decommissioning and auditing.
- Hardware Discovery - Scans for and prepares physical hardware for provisioning using metal-as-a-service functionality.
- Network Asset Discovery - Scans the network to identify bare-metal servers and assigns them to host groups.
- IPAM and DNS Controllers - Automates IP address allocation and the management of DNS and DHCP records for provisioned systems.
- Configuration Orchestration - Integrates with Puppet and Salt to maintain consistent system states and monitor compliance across infrastructure.
- Salt Stack Orchestration - Manages the provisioning, key exchange, and configuration of Salt minions using states and grains.
- Virtual Machine Deployment - Supports the creation and deployment of virtual machines across a variety of hypervisors and cloud platforms.
- Virtual Machine Lifecycle Management - Controls the operational state and configuration of virtual machine instances across various hypervisors.
- Hardware Device Provisioning - Automates the full cycle of discovery, deployment, and upgrading for physical hardware infrastructure.
- Lease Management - Manages the allocation, removal, and reservation of IP addresses via DHCP providers.
- Infrastructure State Management - Exposes infrastructure objects through a standardized JSON API for programmatic creation and modification of system state.
- Network Configuration - Assigns IP and MAC addresses to ensure network connectivity during and after server provisioning.
- Network Booting Utilities - Orchestrates server installation by managing DHCP, DNS, and TFTP services to deliver bootloaders and templates.
- Policy Enforcement - Enforces security policies using role-based access control and external identity providers.
- Role-Based Access Control - Manages user identities and permissions through LDAP and OpenID Connect to restrict infrastructure modifications by role.
- Feature Restrictions - Constrains user access to specific features based on permissions and filters assigned to roles.
- Secure Host Registrations - Handles secure host registration using HTTPS and automates account creation via LDAP.
- Hierarchical Parameter Storage - Coordinates server settings using external node classifiers and hierarchical parameter storage.
- Hypervisor Abstractions - Provides a unified interface to control virtual machine lifecycles across diverse private and public cloud compute providers.
- External Node Classifiers - Delegates host configuration logic to external tools like Puppet and Salt to maintain desired system states.
- Permission Managers - Restricts system permissions using roles, groups, and external identity providers.
- System Configuration Management - Automates and enforces consistent desired system states across the entire server infrastructure.
- Virtual Machine Snapshots - Provides a management interface to capture and restore the state of virtual machines via snapshots.
- Administrative Automation APIs - Provides a RESTful API and command-line interface to automate administrative actions and system tasks.
- Image Build Automation - Constructs bootable and container images from host group definitions to ensure consistent OS deployments.
- Graphical Console Access - Offers clientless VNC access to virtual machine consoles directly within a web browser.
- Compute Profiles - Defines standardized hardware specifications that ensure consistent resource allocation across different virtualization providers.
- Image Generation - Generates platform-specific images based on system definitions to optimize the deployment process.
- In-Place OS Upgrades - Triggers and manages in-place operating system upgrades for hosts using specialized tooling.
- Infrastructure Resource Querying - Allows creating, updating, and listing infrastructure objects through programmatic JSON or GraphQL interfaces.
- Recurring Job Scheduling - Triggers configuration tasks on a defined timetable to maintain a consistent system state.
- Infrastructure Provisioning Templates - Defines installation scripts and partition tables to deliver customized operating system configurations.
- Template-Based Deployment - Deploys custom boot and partition templates to hosts based on specific host attributes.
- Hardware Power Management - Triggers power commands for physical hosts using IPMI, Redfish, or other BMC providers.
- Hardware Power Controllers - Triggers power commands such as shutdown or power-on using IPMI, Redfish, or SSH.
- Proxy-Based Power Control - Triggers reboot or shutdown commands via IPMI, Redfish, or SSH through a proxy server.
- LDAP Authentication - Synchronizes user accounts and group memberships from LDAP directories to automate permissions.
- User Synchronization - Automates user account and permission management by synchronizing internal roles with external LDAP directory services.
- OpenID Connect Support - Verifies user identities using the OpenID Connect protocol and JSON Web Tokens.
- SSH Key Management - Stores public SSH keys to be injected into templates for secure remote access.
- Plugin-Based Architectures - Extends core system capabilities by integrating third-party tools and custom functions through a modular interface.
- Configuration Compliance Monitoring - Monitors Puppet agent reports to ensure hosts remain compliant with assigned configuration classes.
- Configuration Management Integrations - Provides automated scanning and import of environments and classes from Puppet servers.
- Host Groupings - Groups servers together to apply configurations or updates to multiple machines simultaneously.
- Infrastructure Dashboards - Provides a visual interface for tracking server health, system facts, and compliance reports across a fleet of hosts.
- Infrastructure Health Observability - Visualizes system health and build status using customizable dashboard widgets and charts.
- Network Configuration Services - Controls DNS, DHCP, and TFTP services to facilitate automated booting and network configuration.
- System Health Monitoring - Tracks system facts and reports to alert on failures and visualize the health of the server fleet.
- Remote Command Execution - Triggers actions and scripts on remote hosts using a command-line interface.
- Remote Host State Collection - Ingests system data from hosts to automatically create and update detailed host records.
- Server Health Monitoring - Tracks the operational status and health of managed hosts to ensure consistent availability.
- Status Monitors - Tracks host health using statuses to highlight systems requiring administrative attention.
- Host Status Tracking - Tracks global and sub-statuses for hosts to highlight systems that require administrative attention.
- Provisioning and Management - Integrated platform for provisioning, configuration, and infrastructure orchestration.
