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vMetal

vMetal is the physical and virtual Machine provisioning and lifecycle layer of vCluster Platform, not a single repository or service. It spans the platform's Machine and NodeProvider implementation, vCluster's node-consumption workflows, and a portfolio of infrastructure drivers.

A Machine represents a claim on one provisioned server, physical or virtual. A driver is the integration that provisions and manages a specific infrastructure type, such as bare metal servers or virtual machines. See the Glossary for the full terminology and the Machine and server concepts page for the lifecycle and identity model.

How Platform and vCluster use vMetal​

The platform owns the NodeProvider, NodeType, and NodeClaim resources. A NodeClaim is the Kubernetes resource that represents one Machine request and tracks its lifecycle. A tenant cluster requests capacity through Private Nodes. Managing how many Private Nodes join the cluster is a manual, platform-admin-driven task unless automated by Auto Nodes, which maintains Private Node lifecycle automatically in either a static mode (reconciling to a configured desired node count) or a dynamic mode (adding or removing nodes based on configurable resource requirements, such as reserved or used CPU and memory). Auto Nodes is one consumption workflow among several, not the whole of vMetal.

How vMetal fits into vCluster PlatformvCluster Platform governs tenant clusters. vCluster requests physical and virtual Machines from vMetal through a stable Machine API. vMetal provisions and manages those Machines through infrastructure drivers, such as Metal3, KubeVirt, and BCM, running on your own infrastructure.vCluster PlatformGoverns tenant clusters, projects, quotas, and policyvClusterRequests Machines through Private Nodes and Auto NodesStable Machine APIvMetalProvisions and manages physical and virtual MachinesPhysical MachinesVirtual MachinesUsing Metal3, KubeVirt, BCM, and other infrastructure driversYOUR INFRASTRUCTURE · SERVERS · NETWORKING · STORAGE
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Driver portfolio​

vMetal provisions Machines through a portfolio of drivers. Drivers differ in implementation form, maturity, and available features, so check each driver's own documentation before relying on a specific capability.

DriverProvisionsStatus
Metal3Bare metal serversAvailable. See Metal3 driver requirements.
KubeVirtVirtual machinesAvailable. Native virtual machine provisioning.
BCMBare metal serversAvailable for existing installations.
Terraform/OpenTofuInfrastructure without a native driverAvailable as a general-purpose option.
Cluster APIInfrastructure through a Cluster API provider's own contractAvailable as a driver mechanism, not a specific provider.
NICoBare metal serversIn active development, not yet available.

Physical drivers, such as Metal3 and BCM, provision bare metal directly with no hypervisor in the vMetal-managed path. KubeVirt provisions Kubernetes nodes as virtual machines on infrastructure you provide separately.

Each driver publishes its own requirements, capabilities, and day-two operations as they become available. This site currently documents the Metal3 driver in depth.

What vMetal provides, across drivers​

Regardless of which driver provisions a Machine, vMetal gives tenant clusters:

  • Consistent provisioning — the same Machine, NodeProvider, and NodeType model across drivers, so tenant clusters request capacity the same way regardless of underlying infrastructure.
  • OS-image lifecycle — each driver resolves its own OS image today. A shared, project-scoped image cache across drivers is planned but not yet available.
  • Automatic node registration — provisioned Machines join their target tenant cluster on their own, with no manual kubeadm join or agent installation.
  • Inventory and reclaim — vMetal tracks which servers are claimed by a Machine and returns released capacity to the pool for reuse.
  • Tenant isolation — combine with vCluster and vNode for tenant isolation and secure runtime isolation on shared hardware.

Physical and virtual Machine use cases include general compute, GPU and accelerator workloads, and other AI infrastructure. See GPU presentation modes for how vMetal exposes GPUs without owning the driver stack itself.

Where to start​

If you want to...Go to
Learn vMetal terminologyGlossary
Understand the Machine and server model and lifecycleMachine and server concepts
Set up your first Metal3 bare metal serverInstall
Understand the Metal3 provisioning architectureArchitecture
Understand GPU passthrough, vGPU, and MIG boundariesGPU presentation modes
Provision GPU servers for AI workloadsGPU Quickstart
Build a GPU fleet for an inference providerGPU Fleet Operations
Configure a NodeProvider and node typesConfiguration