Provisioning the hyper-converged infrastructure bare metal systems from the top of the rack switch

A system comprising:

• a stateless node of a hyper-converged infrastructure;
• means for booting the stateless node without an operating system, wherein:
• the stateless node comprises a main memory and an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) port coupled to a network switch and a fabric element in the hyper-converged infrastructure;
• and
• the fabric element is configured to provide connectivity between the node and at least one other node element through a direct connection to a high speed data port of the node;
• and
• means for allocating an internet protocol address to the stateless node using a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server executed by a virtual machine, wherein:
• the virtual machine is hosted by the fabric element;
• the virtual machine is configured to execute a preboot execution environment (PXE);
• and
• the PXE stores pre-built operating system images;
• means for obtaining bootstrap software at the stateless node from the fabric element;
• and
• means for executing the bootstrap software in the main memory to boot the stateless node.

A device for provisioning a hyper-converged infrastructure, the device comprising:

• a fabric element configured to run a virtual machine and coupled to a network switch, wherein:
• the fabric element is configured to provide connectivity among a plurality of nodes through a direct connection to high speed data ports of the plurality of nodes;
• the virtual machine is configured to execute a preboot execution environment (PXE);
• and
• the PXE is configured to store pre-built operating system images;
• and
• a node, from among the plurality of nodes, coupled to the fabric element, wherein the node comprises an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) port and a switch management port, the IPMI port and the switch management port are configured to be coupled to the network switch, and the node is configured to:
• download an operating system image from the PXE of the virtual machine;
• install an operating system to a local disk of the node using the operating system image;
• and
• boot using the operating system.